UPDATED: Jill Greenberg: Open Mouth, Insert Foot

Jill Greenberg makes some pretty interesting pictures, to be sure. Yet, if she wanted to commit professional suicide by slamming her clients, she should have just kept mum. In the David Walker's PDN Piece How Jill Greenberg Really Feels About John McCain (9/12/08), Greenburg is reported by PDN to have "rubbed her hands with glee" at the prospect of a portrait session of John McCain, since she's a hardcore Democrat.

Greenberg followed the "one for thee, one for me" approach, shooting her trademark style (see cover above), and then setting up (literally) McCain in another lighting setup (see the PDN piece for that image). PDN quotes her as saying

"He had no idea he was being lit from below,” Greenberg says. And his handlers didn’t seem to notice it either. “I guess they’re not very sophisticated,” she adds.

I say "Damn, she's not very bright to be admitting that. Good luck with your future high-profile portrait subjects who will now look at you with skeptical and critical eyes, Democrat OR Republican, since you're bringing your agenda to the shoots you do."

Here's where I bristled at what she had to say:

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Given her strong feelings about John McCain, we asked whether she had any reservations about taking the assignment in the first place...“I didn’t,” she says. ...Some of my artwork has been pretty anti-Bush, so maybe it was somewhat irresponsible for them [The Atlantic] to hire me.”

Really? Are you really that dense that you would call your client "irresponsible"? What were you thinking? Surely, not that the Atlantic, or that art director wherever they end up, or other art directors who will be concerned about the activist approach you bring to your work, will hire you again.

Next time, you might want to follow the "engage brain, THEN engage mouth" approach. Oh, and good luck on that audit.

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UPDATE:
Greenberg's client has weighed in (via the New York Post):

"We stand by the picture we are running on our cover," said Atlantic editor James Bennet. "We feel it's a respectful portrait. We hope we'll be judged by that picture."

But Bennet was appalled by Greenberg saying she tried to portray McCain in an unflattering way.

"We feel totally blind-sided," he said. "Her behavior is outrageous. Incredibly unprofessional."

More images and commentary: Out-Takes: Behind The Atlantic's McCain Cover

The author of the story weighs in here:

"I don't know Greenberg (I count this as a blessing) and I can add nothing to what James Bennet told the Post except to say that Greenberg is quite obviously an indecent person who should not be working in magazine journalism. Every so often, journalists become deranged at the sight of certain candidates, and lose their bearings. Why, this has even happened in the case of John McCain once or twice. What I find truly astonishing is the blithe way in which she has tried to hurt this magazine."

And the PR Agency for the magazine issued yet another statement by the editor:

We were not aware of the manipulated and dishonest images Jill Greenberg had taken until this past Friday.

When we contract with photographers for portraits, we don't vet them for their politics--instead, we assess their professional track records. Based on the portraits she had done of politicians like Arnold Schwarzenegger and her work for publications like Time, Wired, and Portfolio, we expected Jill Greenberg, like the other photographers we work with, to behave professionally.

Jill Greenberg has obviously not done that. She has, in fact, disgraced herself, and we are appalled by the manipulated images she has created for her Web site of John McCain.”

RELATED: On Jill Greenberg - "I don’t think what she did was wrong"

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Is Your Seminar Really A Sales Pitch?

Aaron over at What The Duck is spot-on here. I can't tell you how many programs I've PAID to attend that become 55 minutes sales pitch, 5 minutes useful information.

Now, I'm not saying that if I wasn't already going to use the product, the 55 minutes of demonstrating how great the product (or service) is, but when a program is billed as "Learn how to retouch" and then the entire session is a sales pitch for a set of photoshop actions, or a program is billed as "learn how to light" and the entire program is a sales pitch for a brand of lights, that's just plain wrong.

More than once I've attended organizational chapter meetings where it was a sales pitch for a lab, when it was supposed to be about how to color manage, or it was supposed to be how to develop a great website and it ended up being "here's how great our website service is".

Be darn sure you know who is presenting, and who they may be schilling for. The common refrain "know before you go" applies here.

(Comments, if any, after the Jump)

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BREAKING: PhotoShelter Collection To Shut Down October 10th

As the sun rises on the West Coast, the news is not good - PhotoShelter, in an effort to sustain their PhotoShelter Personal Archive is closing the PhotoShelter Collection October 10th, according to sources. They will be making a formal annoucement shortly with an expanded explanation about PhotoShelter's plans moving forward.

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This impending announcement comes on the heals of a rough industry situation as both Getty Images and Jupiter Images are suffering losses, and the promotion of all-you-can-eat subscription models that are squeezing every bit of profit out of the market. PhotoShelter has always championed the interests of photographers - seeking to be an advocate and a true representative (that is - looking out for the best interests of those they were representing) and when it came to pass that a change in the business model (i.e. a higher percentage to PSC, or a lowering of per-image pricing to compete with Getty/et al) was the solution, PhotoShelter opted to close the Collection rather than act to diminish their service to photographers.

This shuttering of a division of PhotoShelter Inc, will have no effect on their monthly PhotoShelter Personal Archive, which I use on a regular basis to service my clients and I think is the client-image-delivery-platform of the future, as the concept of shipping CD's to clients becomes an antiquated one. In fact, with more time on their hands, they will be able to be more focused on growing that product, which is, according to sources, a key part of their plans moving forward.

More information as we get it.
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Update: Official statement here.

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ASMP - Creating Chaos? (It's A Good Thing)

With the historic Presidential election less than 60 days away, you can expect there will be a great deal of chaos and consternation in the great state of Florida come election day. Will there be more hanging chads? More recounts? Who knows.

One thing though, is for certain, before the real chaos begins, there will be some creative chaos happening in the sunshine state - thanks to the ASMP Central Florida chapter and a whole host of sponsors - from AdWeek to Emma email marketing, Mac Papers, to LexJet. But it's not just about photography, it's about video, printing, and so forth.

In the line-up are ASMP national speakers Peter Krogh and Blake Discher, talking about the newly evolved workflows/image storage and search-engine-optimization respectively. (I don't need Florida SEO - check this link to see who's listed first for Miami Photographer). But if you do, and I'm betting you do, Blake will tell you all about it. So, if you're not planning to fly to chilly New York City a few days later for PhotoPlus Expo, (Blake's Is Your Web Site Doing All It Can to May Your Money?", or Peter's Practical Image Storage) heading to sunny South Florida will be your best bet to catch these programs that will earn you more money (i.e. more assignments, thus more money), and save your sanity (i.e. redundant safe storage equals piece of mind).

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This is a collaborative conference - check out the other aspects of it:

• The Pixel Conference – The Photoshop Conference for Designers...The Pixel Conference only focuses on the issues/topics that pertain to designers!
• The Web Design Conference – What Designers Need to Know to Make It on the Web!
• Motion Graphics Festival (MG Fest) is an innovative industry event showcasing creative motion picture design.
• Create Chaos Job Fair - Brahn Awards & Events, producers of Create Chaos, has partnered with CreativeHeads.net to produce a best-in-class job fair...
• Printing, Paper & Packaging Design Conference: This show is for designers, art directors and marketing professionals looking for new and creative solutions in the world of printing, paper and packaging.
• STASH Theatre is a showcase of animation, VFX and motion graphics packed with outstanding commercials, broadcast design, branded content...
• The Vector Conference – The how-to Illustrator and Flash conference!

Damn, what a confab! So check out the schedule, and make time for what your ASMP Central Florida has to offer!

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The X Factor

I was passing the time during a shoot doing my morning reading. After reading about the repeated screw-ups with Bloomberg over the inaccurate reporting of Steve Jobs' death, and the false reporting of the bankruptcy of United Airlines, I was making my way through my own blog roll, which includes Chase Jarvis' blog. Chase' piece for today is "What You Can't See Matters", and it's worth a read.

To that end

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I want to echo what Chase has written. I can't tell you the number of times that I got the job because I was easy-going, friendly, I deliver all the time on time, or some other matter totally unrelated to my creative vision, talent, technical expertise, and so forth. In other words, all those things that we worry about - "prime lens, or zoom"; "iso100 or 400 to get a smidge more depth of field"; "3200k or 2900k"?

The shoot I am on now, is a prime example. We have a client that needs (and is happy to pay the surcharge for) same day rush delivery of images. Someone prior to me lost them as a client because they failed to deliver when they said they would.

Previously, we wrote "Wise Words for your Client Dialog - When there's a problem or Question" about the importance of client communication and customer service, Awkward Moments, which continues the point about how to be more effective in your communications with clients.

On top of that, there's the client who came to you and then left for someone else, only to return. I call them the "Prodigal Client", and wrote about them here, and they're coming back for ease of interaction, oftentimes.

We also wrote - Collaborate or Suffer The Consequences - in response to Rob Haggart's A Photo Editor blog -

"just because you are a phenominal photographer, with a great style, doesn't mean clients will want to work with you. And, if you make it worse, you make it so that you can't take direction. This is a recipe for a lot of one-off clients, with little repeat business."

I also wrote - "If I said to you, after you botched a job, or just were laxadasical about your service/followup component of an assignment, that you would loose well over $10k, would you handle things differently?" in this article - Lost Income - Over the long term. And that is a cautionary tale about just how much losing a client will cost you over the life of your business.

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Nikon D700 Report

I just finished a 2 week assignment to the Baltic region, and did a brief video report about how I travel with equipment cases and computers (Dispatches From the Edge: Avoiding Excess Baggage Charges, 8/21/08). However, this piece is about my experiences with the Nikon D700 camera .

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First, the video report and commentary:


Now, here are the files for your own critical review.

Nikon D3 SAMPLE BELOW (click to see full-size file):


Nikon D700 SAMPLE BELOW (Click to see full-size file):


Here's the EXIF data from both:




Below you will see a 100% view of a deal of each of those images. The process for handling these files was straight through Adobe Camera Raw. No adjustments whatsoever were made to the sharpening. You'll note that there is a slight degradation in sharpness on the D700 despite the same settings on the camera and the same exact lens. This difference is negligible, and easily corrected in the raw processing software. I can't be sure if it's just how Adobe handles the raw data from a D700, since it is so new, or it's how the camera stores the raw data, since it's the same chip in both cameras.



Here's another set of files that I didn't discuss in the video report.

Nikon D3 SAMPLE BELOW (click to see full-size file):



Nikon D700 SAMPLE BELOW (Click to see full-size file):


Here's the EXIF data from both:




Below you will see a 100% view of a deal of each of those images. The process for handling these files was straight through Adobe Camera Raw. No adjustments whatsoever were made to the sharpening. You'll note that the nominal loss of sharpness is less aparent at ISO 2000 than at 3200 in the previous set of images. As noted before, this difference is negligible, and easily corrected in the raw processing software. I can't be sure if it's just how Adobe handles the raw data from a D700, since it is so new, or it's how the camera stores the raw data, since it's the same chip in both cameras.





As noted on the GPS comments, here's the GPS coordinates. (click to see larger):





That really cool feature is a part of Camera Bits' application Photo Mechanic, and whenever an image has GPS data, the option "show on map" appears when you right-mouse-click the image, as below:


The GeoPic II is available at B&H for $299, and is well worth it in my opinion.

As for the D700, it too is a great camera - surely delivers the same image noise levels that the D3 is known for - and something that is causing many a Canon user to switch to Nikon for. There are, of course, pro-level features like the dual card slot, and other things that make the D3 a workhorse, but if you're looking for a second camera to backup your D3, or if you want a camera that delivers D3 quality images in the final analysis, I really like the Nikon D700 camera ($2,999 at Amazon, free shipping)..

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Annie At Work

One can only hope that the insights we will glean from the upcoming book Annie Leibovitz at Work (available for pre-order) is all about how Annie shoots - her style, her approach, and so forth. It can't be that she's showcasing business accumen in this book?

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One can only hope, if the report by the New York Post - Annie's A Deadbeat in a Snap (8/31/08), is to be believed. The article alleges $715k in debts, including outstanding equipment rental fees.

How can that be? Well, of course, the New York Post never gets it wrong, does it?

We previously took the NY Post to task for the "tryouts" they were putting all their freelancers through (NY Posty Notes, 7/25/07) and their pay scale surely is not one that can sustain any professional freelance photographer, so where do they get all up in knowing the business of someone with a history and track record like Annie?

The Post has decided to air Annie's laundry, dirty or not. Let's take a look at an alternative possibility. Unpaid taxes? How it is possible that anyone knows what the Federal or State tax authorities are doing? That's something that they're not supposed to be leaking, and until the government brings suit - and while the Post cited "court documents", I'd like to see the proof on that. Further, what ever happened to the "innocent until proven guilty" concept? If the government decides that my house is valued at $500k, and I say it's $250k, and we disagree, that gets decided in court.

What about the labor on the townhouse? It's not out of the ordinary for contractors to say something is done, while the spackle is dripping down the wall and the punch list is far from complete. Yet, they can put a mechanic's lien on your home and you have to fight that in court, over whether or not the job was done right or not.

Unpaid equipment rental fees? Let's say you rented something 3pm - 3pm, and the rental houses' courier gets held up in traffic headed back and blames the delay on the photographer. "Heck, it's Annie Leibovitz, she can cover that additional day's rental" thinks the assistant or the courier hoping to cover their backside, and then you have a dispute. Not unheard of.

I'd like to see the documents. Anyone have a link? Let's all take a look before we pass judgement.

However, this is a cautionary tale to everyone - this is a business people, and don't you ever forget it.

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Academic Inbreeding

One of the common refrains I hear from those that intern for me is that they felt that their college was a waste, and they should have come through my program, or a similar one, and that the real world experiences far better prepares them for the freelance world.

I can see their point, and understand that, to a degree, it may be true, but that degree is worth a great deal. But what degree?

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First things first - graduating from college is critical. Don't be an idiot and think that it's not worth it. So many people I know say that getting your degree is the ultimate test in being able to demonstrate you can finish something you started. I agree with that sentiment.

Recently, there was a discussion on a photo association listserv about the qualifications for a teaching position.

Faculty members must have teaching experience at the college level and are required to maintain active participation in their field of photography.

Active participation? I can't say I know a lot of professors that would fit that bill. A few, but not a lot.

The perfect candidate for this job is someone who has an MFA in photography, plus commercial and teaching experience.

And here's where I, along with others on the listserv had a problem. This school requires a Masters? Surely this applies in fields like English, the Sciences, and so forth, but the arts? Maybe Art History degrees, but for the field of photography, I just don't see it.

In the schools of today, in large part, the inbreeding, tenure debates, and self-congratulation that goes along with being an academic is part of the problem with todays' photographers that enter the real world with a diploma, $100k or so in debt, and no way to pay that debt off. Few schools are preparing their students with the tools they need to succeed in business, since freelancers are the new staffers.

I have a few colleagues, and professors at places like RIT, and Brooks, and so forth, that have said that my book is on their required reading list. If you know of others, please post them in the comments. I am not saying that my book, per se, is the end-all be-all answer, but it's at-least an indicator if the professors at the school even care about the issue of their photographers as soon-to-be self-employed.

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PhotoSynth - The Landscape of Photography is about to Change

Two years ago, I was blown away by the demonstration I saw during a visit to the Microsoft campus of the PhotoSynth application. I wanted so much to get my hands on it.

Then, when speaking this past July at the Microsoft Pro Photo Summit, they announced it would be coming out this Fall. I was SO excited to get my hands on it.

Now, they've announced its' available immediately for you to use with your own images.

So, what do their Terms of Use say?

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In relevant part to rights:

Except for material that we license to you, we do not claim ownership of the materials you post or provide on the service, and you reserve all other rights (including copyrights) in your materials. However, with respect to content you post or provide you grant to those members of the public to whom you have granted access (for content posted on shared and private areas of the service) or to the public (for content posted on public areas of the service) free, unlimited, worldwide, and nonexclusive permission to:

use, modify, copy, distribute and display the content solely in connection with the service;
publish your name in connection with the content; and
grant these rights to others.
These rights do not allow Microsoft or anyone else to use your materials separate from the service. The service may enable you to include licenses that allow Microsoft or third parties to use your materials separate from the service, but such licenses are not applicable to use of your materials in connection with the service. Microsoft is not responsible for third parties violating the license you provide.

All rights granted herein terminate when you remove your content from the service.

Whew! That last sentence is especially positive. It's clear here that Microsoft wants to share whatever you create on PhotoSynth, but not trample on your rights.

Sadly, I am stuck for the next few days in the Baltics, with a very slow internet connection, or I'd be uploading images right now. They've got a blog here, and you can begin to set up an account and work with it here.

I had expected I could download an application, and synth the photos locally, but that's not the case. I hope that will the case in the future. Speaking of the future, If you saw Blade Runner, this technology might look familiar - Deckard used something very similar in the movie - hit this link to see the segment that's on YouTube about it. Strange to see movies predict the future, except that PhotoSynth is so much more!

The application requires Windows, and, thanks to my trusty Parallelsapplication, I can use it within a window on my Mac.

Since July, I've been dreaming of ways to use this application to serve my clients with an immersive experience either of what I do, or what their product or service does for the public. I see the landscape of photography and its' experiential nature changing as a result of PhotoSynth - photography will be much more interactive, and this will give viewers/users an experience that video cannot, because the user can explore within the scene - a radical new concept.

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A Weakened Copyright Thanks to an Old Fogel

No greater example that I can think of comes to mind when photo consultant Leslie Burns-Dell’Acqua (soon to be lawyer!) writes on her blog - It’s not whether you win (8/21/08) - "In law school, one of the very first things they teach you is that the law is not even close to black and white–it’s an interpretation of meanings and previous decisions" than the latest news on the Copyright front smacked down by the judicial fiat of U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel where we copyright owners now have to

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consider "fair use" before we send a DMCA Takedown Notice to someone for stopping the infringement of our works online.

Wired reports in Judge: Copyright Owners Must Consider 'Fair Use' Before Sending Takedown Notice, 8/210/08:

"In the nation's first such ruling, a federal judge on Wednesday said copyright owners must consider "fair use" of their works before sending takedown notices to online video-sharing sites...The DMCA requires removal of material a rights holder claims is infringing its copyrights. If it isn't removed, legal liability can be placed on YouTube or other video-sharing sites."

See Carolyn Wright's post - Using the DMCA Takedown Notice to Battle Copyright Infringement - 8/1/08 , for more information on how you do that.

This judge's fiat takes the notion of the law not being black or white and makes is fuchsia!

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