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Jared polin froknowsphoto.com and welcome to the Daily Fro for 6-6-2026. The time now is 3:10 in the PM. It is currently 90 degrees outside here in Philly. I got 43% battery life on my watch as of right now. And I'm sitting here on a Saturday talking to you because I'm here at the studio preparing to go away. I got to go out of the country for a couple of days on a shoot, packing up the four by five, getting everything ready to organized, prepared because you have to be prepared before you go just so that you don't forget something. The last thing you want to do is forget something and scan your film or send it through the scanner again, the X ray machine when you're not supposed to do that and get it hand checked. I'm looking at myself right now for saying that. But I want to talk about something interesting here today. It's blending in verse, being seen AKA being seen scene. Now I'm bringing this up because I did a reel the other day based off of a message I got back from a very fairly large musician who said something to me on Instagram. He dropped me a message and said something and I'll tell you what the quote was in a minute. But it really resonates with me and I know it goes counterintuitive to what some people want you to do. They don't want you to be seen. They want you to blend in. And I'm not a blend in type of person. Now of course everything is within reason you're not the show. But honestly, I've built what I've built by being seen and I live by that. I'm not worried about showing up on stage and being seen. I'm not worried about showing up in the background of a TV episode. I'm not worried about being in the background of a politician taking the photo. I'm taking the photograph but I'm in the background and people can see it. The photo is what matters and living on are those photos. Very few times are some. Is somebody gonna sit there in the stands or watching on TV and be like man, that guy was such a distraction in the background. It took away from the main event be seen. That's the moral of the story here. And I'm gonna keep talking about that. So this is what the I shot a show that recently. You can go on my Instagram and see who it was. But he sent a message. Okay, it was Ben Folds. Ben Folds sent a message the other Day. And I thought it was great. He goes, the only photographer I can spot from the stage. And he also said, I love that you don't shoot 10,000 frames per minute. I love the first part. The only photographer I can spot from the stage. That means I'm being seen and I'm in the pit. Right. The reason I'm seen is you could see my hair, you could see my silhouette, you can see the shadow. You could see whatever you could see from stage because stage is hard with all the lights in your face. But the way that I look, you know that I'm there and I'm not being a distraction. I was literally in the pit area. The stage is up to my neck, basically. And you can still see me when he's on stage. And the fact that he recognized that I thought was tremendous. That means a lot because I do work hard at blending in. But I also understand that you're going to see me. I've got big hair, I got a big ass, I got big arms, I got a tight purple shirt on most of the time and big cameras and lenses. You're not going to miss me. All right? But I'm also not trying to get in the way, be seen, do things with purpose. One of the things I see people do all the time is they crouch down when they're like, trying to sneak out of an event. Or they're like, I need to go to a bathroom or I need to move a little bit. Just walk with purpose. Stand up, Walk. Don't crouch down. I still see you crouching. It's the same thing as if you just stood up and walked with purpose. When I go out and do a shoot, I. I'm not gonna stand in somebody's way, but I'm going to walk with purpose to the place where I want to get the photograph, and I'm gonna get the photograph and then I'm gonna walk back out with purpose. And I'm not gonna slink down, cuz you see me anyway. When you crouch down, no one's gonna miss you. It's not like you're hiding now the shadow is moving. Just crouch down a little bit more. So being that Ben sent this to me, I wanted to share my thoughts about it because it goes deeper than just being seen at a concert. And there's been a million times where people are like, you need to wear black at a concert. You need to blend in on the stage. You don't want to be seen. I get it. If you're on the stage 100% of the time, and you got the TV production camera and. And you're just out there. Fine, sure, you don't want to stand out, but there's been so many times where I've been on stage and I pop up in the background on the drum riser or behind the drum riser. When I did the Poison show, and I climbed all the way up top and got a great shot. The shot is what lives on. I think very few people are going back a year later and being like, remember that guy that stood up behind the drum kit? I mean, if you fell off the drum risers, sure. But they're not sitting there being like, man, that was such a distraction from the show. It's like, why are they a redneck? I don't know. I don't know. Don't ask me. The moral of the story is be seen. And I worked hard at being seen. I make YouTube videos to be seen. That's. I mean, being seen is how I've gotten so many gigs these days, because I've put myself out into the world and now I am part of the show. When I go to these, I feel like I am. That I am not the show. But I remember that, except for when I'm the presenter, I'm on stage and I'm talking or something, I'm not there to get in the way of the shot. I'm there to get the shot. And the artists and people I work with understand that. And they also let me do what I need to do, AKA let me cook, so that I can get the photos that make them look good again. Nobody's going back 5, 6, 7, 10 years from now and be like, man, remember when Jared ran out on the stage and. And got this James Blunt photo and then ran back off the stage? We got the Foo Fighters out there or got that Poison shot. There were 50,000 people in the stands. When I got the photo of Bret Michaels punching at my camera, coming back towards me at the end of their set, like, I don't think people are like, man, remember that guy? But the photo is what lives on. And then there's video. And because Dan got video of me doing it and the story behind it, like, to me, that's important. I like being seen. And I know some of you don't like being seen, but sometimes if you're not seen, it's out of sight, out of mind. And being out of sight, out of mind isn't a good thing, because if you don't come to mind, you might not get the gig. Being seen within reason is super important. You want people to recognize you. I mean, I worked hard for years trying to figure out what is my thing, how will people recognize me. And there were the long sideburns. I tried with a buzz cut haircut way back in the day. There were the, I mean, I, I don't know, I tried to dress different and then I just let my hair grow and then I became the fro. And it's highly recognizable. You'll notice that a lot of photographers have a thing, whether it was Jim Marshall hanging the leicas around his neck or this Rick Rich Fury I met the other day, who's a photographer who has a specific look. We all have something, right? Something that stands out. And of course your work needs to stand out as well. But you want to be seen. I don't wanna blend in. I want to stand out, you know, so that's, that's the point. So I already talked about don't crouch down. But then I got into the whole. Well, when I used to shoot weddings, I used to stand by the, the dance floor when it was time when everybody was eating. Right. So here, here's how a wedding generally works. You show up early in the morning for the hair and makeup for the bride and the groom. Sorry, for the bride generally. Unless you're doing two brides or two, I don't know, or guys are wearing makeup, I don't know what the hell people do today. I don't shoot weddings now. But you generally would spend time with the bride and then send somebody to go do photos of the groom getting ready. Or I'd go and do both. So you're spending the day that you got that, then you get over to the venue, do whatever shots you need to get before the wedding, then you do the wedding stuff and then you do the post wedd stuff which is getting all the portraits and sorry, the family shots and everything along those lines. Or portraits if you need to. If the bride and groom aren't seeing each other before the night of the day of the wedding, which is whatever, whatever you want to do. And then comes the party. So you do all the party stuff and then they start eating. Do you go and smoke a cigarette? Do you go and hang out at the bar? Do you go and eat in a closet? I bring up the eat in the closet thing because there's a lot of times they're like, well, the help needs to eat over here. And it's like, no, we used to have it in the contract where it was like, I eat with the guests. And I don't need to sit at a table. I know that. Just give me a meal that's off to the side, but a separate table that's off to the. Somewhere where I can eat and still see what's going on. Because the last thing I want to have happen is someone look for me and I'm not there to be found. I just want people to have the comfort that I'm standing there by the dance floor while they're eating, holding my camera while waiting. I'm not outside smoking. I'm not at the bar drinking. I'm not going to the car. I'm not on my phone. I'm waiting for them to ask for something or more. So I just want to be seen. I want them to think that I am always there. Whenever someone turns their head, they see you. He's doing a great job. He's everywhere. Do you know how many times I've gotten comments at the end of a wedding? Man, you did a great job today. They haven't seen a photo yet, but they did. They thought I did a great job because I was seen. You were everywhere. You were all over the place. You were getting every shot that was important because they could see me. You want to be seen. Another thing I do at weddings or events or whatever, I mean, so this can spiral or span into other types of events. But let me start with weddings first. What I would like to do or did in the past is I would go to the mother of the bride and I say, is there anything you would like? Is there anything you need? Please come and find me. But every once in a while, I would walk over and just be like, is there a shot that you would like me to get? Boom. Go over to the father of the bride or groom. Same thing goes both ways. And you just make yourself seen and say, hey, is there anything you need? You let me know. I'll be right here. I'll be over there. You just call me over reach. I'll come back over a few times. Boom. You could go to the grandparents and try to do the same thing. And conversely, if you're doing a job for someone else, you, who's the CEO who hired you? Hey, is there anything else you need? Who's important here? Walk over to those important people and be like, hey, how you doing? I'm here photographing tonight. If there's anything I can do for you, you just let me know. Any group shots, anything in particular, I'm here for you. Just look for me. And you want to be seen. You want to be there. And this is why the whole work from home thing is a little tough in some situations, because it's out of sight, out of mind. There's a thing to being seen when the boss comes in and you're there. There's a thing when the boss decides to leave. Whenever they leave and you're there and they see you working, or every once in a while, you walk over and you're like, hey, is there anything you need today? Can I grab you anything? You need something? I had an idea. Just make yourself not invisible. It's not about blending in. I know some people like to blend in. I get it. And not everybody is meant to stand out. And you just want to be a cog in the wheel, and you clock in, you clock out, and then work's done. I get it. But for me, it's about being seen. I'm different. I want to be seen. I want to be out there. That's why I stood there at those weddings. And people would say, you did a fantastic job. I want that. That's where it needs to be. But working from home is certainly one of those things that might keep you out of the mind of a boss or an employer or whoever it is. Maybe you're not getting the extra work that would potentially give you the ability to step up. Because when. When the. When. When a. When a boss or somebody comes out of the somewhere, they move whenever they look for something like, oh, there's Johnny. And it's like, okay, I see Johnny. Hey, Johnny, could you help me with this? You never know what you're stepping into there. You. It's because you're being seen. You're there being seen as half the battle. And it doesn't always mean that you're, like, doing all of this work. It just means you're being seen in a place so they think you're doing. And I'm not saying you shouldn't do work. I'm just saying you're putting yourself into situations where you are seen and you are recognized, and that is important. A quick soccer story from way back in the day. I might have been eight or nine years old, and my travel soccer coach took me out of the game to put a sub in. And I went and I sat down, probably with my mom or dad off to the side. And then he looked and he was like, yo, I can't tell you what he said exactly. His name was Sam, Sam Feldman. And he's like, hey, be on my hip. You're out of the game. But if you're out of sight, you're out of mind, you're not going back in the game. I don't know, you're out here, so be right next to me. That was a learning lesson back then. I wonder if I learned anything from it then, but, I mean, obviously it stuck with me. If I'm bringing it up now, which brings up that idea of core memories, I cannot. And this isn't in my notes. This is just one of me going off the rails. I despise when people are like, core memory created, core memory unlocked. You don't know it's a core memory until it's a core memory. Sure, you had a great time doing whatever it was. Yeah, that's a memory. But you don't know that it's a core memory. To me, the core memories are things that you. They're not always the grandiose thing. This is a core memory. Sam was like, stand by my hip. That's how you get back in the game. A core memory is my dad picking me up out of my bed as a five, six year old kid, remembering the cologne that he wore, remembering the smoothness of his face or the roughness of his face even after he shaved or something because he was going to New York for the day. So he would pick my brother up or me from bed while we were sleeping and put us into his bed next to mom. That's a core memory where me hitting a door knocker in Disney World as a five year old because I was in like one of the countries at Epcot and I saw a door knocker and I knocked it. Little did I know that someone was gonna open the door and it was their office. That's a core memory. It's emblazoned into my brain. So you can't control them. Okay, back to being seen. Do you get what I'm saying here? You don't have to have big hair, big arms, big ass, big boobs or whatever to be seen. You could be the smallest person in the world. But you just want people to know that you're there. And especially in the creative field, you want to be seen. And if you have a thing like, I've got the hair, it's fascinating that Ben could see me from the stage. I mean, I remember shooting in LA at the Staples center at the time, and it was James Blunt. And he told me in one of the songs, they. I don't even know if he actually told me that everybody lights up their phone and you get up on stage he might have told me. And then everybody did. They lit up their phones, I got up on stage, I snuck around the back cause it was just him playing piano. And I pop my head up, take the picture and leave. They also have me in their video that they ended up doing because you see my head pop up. But still, the moral of the story is I got the shot. And to me, the shot is more important than anything else. I don't know, people might say that's self grandiose and that I don't care about others. I mean, I care about getting the shot because that's all that matters. That's why you don't ask for permission from people most of the time to get the shot. Within reason. Within reason. You take the shot and you ask for forgiveness or permission later. But the moment you ask for the shot, the moment is gone. It's gone, it's over. So even though I've got big hair, big arms, big ass and big cameras, I still blend in. And you forget about me after a while, while I'm shooting, but you still know that I'm there. I hope that doesn't negate everything I said because I don't think it does. I blend in. I'm like a fly on the wall. That's when I'm doing. The candidates, they don't need to know that I'm there for that, but they know that I'm there because they gave me permission to be there. But it's okay to be seen. Be seen. Don't crouch, walk with purpose, shoot with purpose. Don't try to blend in all the time. If you just try to blend into the background, you might never. You might never be seen. And I know that's the point of blending in, but also the point of being a creative is you have to be seen by somebody at some point. And they have to know that you exist. They have to know that you are there. They have to know that this is the work that you do. Of course, of course. It's not hard and true the whole time that you have to be seen everywhere. Don't take this to the extremes. I'm saying for most situations, for me, being seen is very important. Take the wedding thing to heart. Take what my soccer coach said to heart. Go be seen by the boss. Walk by, ask if they need something. Ask if you can get some help. Hey, is there any extra, any, anything extra I could do for you right now? I got some extra. Not maybe don't say some extra time. But hey, is there anything else I could work on for you right now. You never know. You want to be seen, so be seen. That's it. That's a daily fro for June 6, 2026. The time is 3:28 in the PM. It's still 90 degrees outside. And that's where I'm gonna leave it, guys. Thank you very much for listening to a daily frozen, which isn't exactly daily. I'll do them when I have something to say. Jared Poland fro knows photo. Com. See ya.