"He nevers asks if I'd like a double tall split skinny with a whitecap"

While traveling through Wisconsin last fall, my wife and I stopped at a coffee shop. It had internet access, so I went back out to the car to get my laptop computer and camera to edit and upload a photo I had taken just a few minutes before.

When I went back out to the car, this fella was running around the back of an SUV barking at me while his owner sipped a hot drink while playing cards with some folks inside the shop. I grabbed the computer and camera, then saw that the light was good so I pointed the camera at the dog. He immediately struck a pose for me, let me take the picture, then resumed running around and barking.

I'm thinking I should do a series of "dogs waiting in trucks" photos. It seems like in Wisconsin, every parking lot has at least one pickup truck or SUV with a dog waiting inside at any given time during the day.


Photo blogging: The Getty Images jobs web site proudly celebrates its “community of creative, intelligent and interesting people.” Over the course of the next 60 days, Getty will be reaching into that community and tossing a number of creative, intelligent and interesting people out on the street at it eliminates jobs following its acquisition of Jupiter Images.

But there is a bright spot. Getty is now hiring a photographer. They’re looking for someone with the ability to "deliver product that is in line with overall corporate objectives" while striving to "understand and manage the various budgetary issues that may affect the ability to deliver product" while simultaneously utilizing an “ability to build alliances” and interfacing “with management to ensure needs are met."

And I presume that when you’re not doing all that, you should be out taking pictures.

I’ve read hundreds of job postings and help wanted ads in the past six months since I was jettisoned from the good ship Corporate America. And still, a little part of me dies when I read an ad written in corporate-speak. Creating prose that is not only vague but dull is a true art form that is not to be envied.

UPDATE: The job posting has been removed from the Getty web site and various job boards. Hopefully at the insistence of a copy editor.

Photograph © 2009 James Jordan.