Chase Giveth, And Giveth Some More!

Chase Jarvis has done something extraordinary - out of the blue, Chase is giving away a FREE trip and conference registration to SB2, airfare included! Check out WIN a FREE Trip To ASMP Strictly Business 2 - Chicago for the details.

If you're reading this blog, you should be there! (and you also will know that this is a repeat of my call for Atlanta!) The third of what will be a total of four stops (Chicago is the last stop, the destination for Chase) takes place starting this Friday, March 7, in Philadelphia. If you missed LA, I did a video report on it (here) and it has been widely reviewed as a success, with people traveling to LA from as far away as Alaska and Florida. So, this isn't something that you should be saying "oh, it's not near me, I'm not going." Planes, trains, or automobiles - it doesn't matter how you get there, because this is worth traveling for! It is going to be a remarkable weekend that will either get you started right, or bolster your existing business skills.

At this program you won't learn lighting, or video, or any other skill-set except how to run your business better and more efficiently. Beginners have come away with massive amounts of information and exceptional resources, while long-time photographers have taken away new tools and refined their current business practices to be better and more efficient in how they run their existing businesses.

Need to know about marketing? ASMP has brought in Leslie Burns Dell'Acqua to give you real tools to use to begin to market yourself, or to evolve how you marketing into the new era that is e-mail and the latest in marketing trends, helping you to reach your intended audience.

Blake Discher is also on hand to discuss the great unknown that is client negotiations and gets you thinking in the right direction about how to price your work so you stay in business.

Don't know how to store, archive, and deliver your work safely? ASMP's President, Judy Herrmann will set you straight about how to protect yourself from the inevitable hard drive crash, and deliver clients images when they want, and how they want them. Judy knows a great deal on the subject, and listening to her is like pouring pure octane into your gas tank - you're getting so much fast-burn information, every tidbit is valuable.

Further, and what is the starting point, Richard Kelly and Susan Carr start off with the basics, and make sure we're all on the same page, establishing baselines and foundations so we all are on the same bus together.

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Oh, and I'm also there talking about the critical tools for your photography business. It's like this blog, come to life, with a bit more restraint and carefully chosen words than you might find here, except the information I'll be presenting is, as it's titled, critical to your business, including copyright registration, dealing with contracts (both yours and the clients), and so forth. As I said before, if you're reading this blog, you should be there.

But it doesn't stop there, because that was just DAY ONE!

Ready for day 2? We spend the morning training you to negotiate better. We show you how we do it in several situations, role-playing, and then we break up into small groups, and guide these groups of 15 or so through the process, pausing and refining, and everyone else gets to chime in - it's all very interactive.

After lunch (included, on both days!), there are smaller workshops, delivering more details and specifics on Marketing to Move Your Business Forward; Business Workflow to Bring You Profits; Taking Control of Your Career; and Is Your Website Doing All It Can to Get You Work?. Don't worry though, they are repeated, so you can take two of the four.

Not enough? You're crazy then, but, well, ok - how about we have Joyce Tenneson give the keynote on Saturday night, before the free Digital Railroad reception that's included?

Register now, figure out how you'll get there next!

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Xerox - "MyShot" Takes Aim At Unsuspecting Students

Xerox (NYSE: XRX) seems to have a problem with a healthy respect for photographers copyrights. Namely, if you are a student, they want yours. I've been watching this latest in photo contest rights grabs. At first, Xerox wanted ownership and unlimited use of all entries, by both Xerox, and their undefined "designees", and they wanted to use all entries (not just the winners) for any and all marketing purposes, and furthermore, they wanted to prohibit you from using your own work for anything but self promotion for 5 years. The fine print of the contest rules adds insult to injury, stating that all entries (not just the winners) are owned by Xerox.

Yikes!

Recently, Xerox inserted an explanatory text box on the rules page, with a carefully crafted statement that on the surface, appears to indicate that their usage is limited to “winning photographs” for an 18 month period. A careful reading of this new text reveals that Xerox merely limited the period of exclusivity, and not the usage period. The fine print still provides Xerox with ownership and unlimited usage of any and all entries, including non‐winners, for an unlimited time, in all countries, throughout the world. Rather than limiting usage of the photographs to promotional use related to the contest, the rules provide Xerox with the unrestricted right to use winning photographs for any and all advertising, promotional and other purposes without further compensation to the student photographer. Apparently, someone at Xerox got the bright idea to use a photo contest to source images for their ad campaigns. Scoundrels!

But it gets worse.

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What makes this contest particularly egregious is that Xerox has set their sights on unsuspecting student photographers, who are often eager to see their work in print, and are unlikely to read the fine print, and do not yet understand how to protect their rights. Further, they are using the schools and faculty members, many of whom might not read the fine print, to draw students into the contest.

And there's more:

Each winner is required by the rules to certify that they will "hold harmless" Xerox in the event that any third party sue sues Xerox as the result of their use of the photographs in their advertising. Nice - Let's take a billion-dollar company and transfer millions of dollars in liability to a student contest entrant who is already weighed down with student loan debt and is about to enter the profession during one of the most challenging periods in the history of photography. While it may be reasonable for Xerox to require that students certify that they are in fact the copyright owner of an entry and have obtained proper model releases from pictured subjects, Xerox steps over the line yet again by limiting the entrant's ability to sue Xerox in the event that Xerox oversteps it's already egregious boundaries for use of the photos, essentially eviscerating the rights of the entrant.

Further, the language of the contest rules would confuse even an experienced, seasoned professional photographer.

Oh, and one more thing - if you're "lucky enough" to be a winner, you have to sign a separate, as yet undisclosed contract with Xerox. It probably has something in there about giving away your first born or something. To an aspiring photo student, it feels the same way to do so with your first, best, images.

This contest (and others) should be about who took the best picture, not about who can screw unsuspecting students and photographers out of their rights. Xerox, time to get the white‐out. and Limit your usage to winning entries only, and only to promotion of the myShots contest. Remove the terms providing Xerox with ownership of entries. Revise the “hold harmless” clause to remove any liability placed upon the students, other than for falsifying their copyright ownership information. Limit the exclusivity clause to Xerox competitors only, and apply this only to the more significant prize winners. Allow students to make use of their own photographs during the exclusivity period, provided that they do not license usage to Xerox competitors. Provide students with approval rights and market‐rate compensation in the event that any winning image is selected by Xerox for usage other than promotion of the contest. Respect the rights of students and photographers. Do the right thing.

If you want to read the rules, check this link. MyShot08 contest rules.

After choking back the bile, send an e-mail to these folks:

• Sandra.Delvecchio@xerox.com
• BethAnn.Kilberg-Walsh@xerox.com

Be sure to take note of the folks who have signed on as sponsors of this contest rights grab, whose organizations are photo-centric and should know better by now:

• Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE)
• Fuji Film (NASDAQ: ADR)
• H&H Color Lab

This is just getting silly. If your company relies on photographers, before you agree to sponsor contests/events, you should have as a requirement that you get to read and sign-off on contest/event rules so you don't reap the ire of the photo community!

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Free Photos and Artistic Vision - A Contrary Position

My friend and colleague, Chase Jarvis, wrote on his blog, and article titled Free Photos and Artistic Vision, and, it's worth a read. However, where he posits the notion for pondering that, possibly:

The future of earning a living as a photographer lies not in your old pictures, but your next pictures. Sure, one-of-a-kind historical, documentary pictures will always have their earning potential, but the successful professional of the future -- just like the successful professional of today -- will make their money getting hired to deliver their commissioned, artistic vision for the newest product, trend, or photo of the moment, NOT to deliver the ones and zeros from yesterday's digital file.

He is promoting the 'sell once and forget it' approach.

In other words, get as much for it now as you can, and don't plan to, or choose the option that allows you to monetize that asset over time. At first blush, that seems fine, however, there's a problem with that idea.

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It suggests the conveyance to the client of all rights so as to eliminate your ability to earn more on those images from that client. There are a number of issues with that:

• The clients will seek lower and lower figures for these all rights packages. They already are getting them now, for pennies of what they are reasonably valued at.
• You'll get the client who hires you for a brochure, and then uses the images in a national ad campaign. Happens now all the time by unsuspecting photographers who buy the "we're only going to use it in a small print-run brochure..." line, and then signs away all rights.
• You'll get the client who hires you once for $10k, and then, when they would have had to pay you another, say, $8k the next year to re-use the images, or perhaps another $10k shoot instead, decides they'll re-use the images under the proposed model, and would not have to pay the $8k, nor commission the new $10k. This will have a trickle-down effect.
• These clients may, in turn, re-license them through a stock portal themselves.

There are, of course, other problems, with the all-you-can-eat buffet approach to photography.

I recently had a prospective client (a purported magazine) call me to photograph 60 portraits - individual portraits around DC. They wanted to pay $1k per portrait. At first blush, this seemed like a boon. Upon reading their contract, they took all rights, including reprints. I did a little research, and found that these portraits - of lawyers - were being done and then the lawyers, because they were featured in this "magazine" which was a "special edition" titled "Washington's Best Lawyers" and moreover, each firm could (read, was asked to) advertise in the publication, and then they sold reprints for $3k for an inside piece, and more if the cover was "redone" for the lawyer or firm. In essence, it was a disguised brochure, and I was the $1k guy that would have turned over all that income to the "magazine". Further, the firm could - for a fee - get the digital file for their own uses. There was no movement on the price, or a renegotiation on the reprints issue, and when I noted that they were charging for the reprints of my work and thus, earning a substantial income from essentially reselling my work, and I queried further "is that your business model", they said it was, and they were doing it all over the country.

While I know that Chase has a true and nearly as complete as possible understanding of the value of the images he produces, I submit that, to the vast majority of photographers who don't get signed contracts from clients before beginning work, roll over on rights grabs without additional compensation, and have no idea what their CODB is, letting the levy breach whereby "all rights forever" and WMFH are allowed to roam free and fester in the land of acceptable business models for freelancers, is a recipe for disaster.

Chase does put forth the question "IF (capitalized for emphasis) this is the case," and so, I think he may well disagree with this notion, but he puts it forth, and ends with "Scary to some, exciting to others. You just need to decide on which side of that fence you're going to sit." I submit that that last word has a misspelling. It needs an "h" between the "s" and the "i".

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Rights: Yours, Mine, and Theirs

There are lots of topics on the subjects of rights I could discuss, though this wouldn't normally be one. But as it deals with the business of being a photographer, it deserves our attention. It's when a photographer is alleged to have violated the human rights of someone else.

What's that you say? Aren't we supposed to be the defender of the downtrodden, the under-served, the discriminated against?

Yes, one photographer has been taken to task for alledgedly discriminating against the rights of another, a prospective client, for religious reasons - the photographer's religious reasons.

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The Washington Times reported (Artist hit for refusal on beliefs, 2/25/08) that an evangelical Christian photographer is being charged with violating the rights of a lesbian couple who wanted to have Elaine Huguenin, who is based in New Mexico, photograph their commitment ceremony.

Now, before I continue, let me say one thing - at no time in this article am I (nor should you) going to take a position on the issue of Huguenin's religious beliefs, nor on the couple's ceremony. If you decide to make this about that in the comments, not only are you missing the point of this piece, you're comments will be subject to deletion. I was going to turn on moderation of comments, but thought better of that.

Had the photographer - who is in the business of providing photographic services to couples - simply decided, in her own mind, that she objected to these specific types of ceremonies, simply said "I don't think I would be a good fit for your ceremony", or even said she had other obligations, that would have been the end of it. Instead, the photographer opted to leave a paper trail, of sorts, in the form of an email to the prospective clients, regarding her religious objections to a same-sex ceremony, and thus, indicated that her intention to not provide professional services to this couple was based upon this position. A statement that, in many jurisdictions, can be interpreted (and has successfully been, in courts-of-law) as discriminatory.

Are there many, many other photographers in the Albuquerque area that could provide as good as, if not better, services than Huguenin? Surely that's the case. Why did this couple decide to bring this case before a state tribunal? Because refusal of service could very well be discriminatory, when made by the owner of a business.

Yes, you're a business, just like the malt shops who wouldn't serve blacks in the 60's - they were in the wrong. You're a business, just like those that might refuse an interracial couple from enjoying a romantic dinner in their restaurant. Those that would do so would be found to be in the wrong. You're a business, just like those that would refuse a muslim service after 9/11, they were found to be in the wrong. Federal laws have jurisdiction over civil/human rights issues, where people are discriminated on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, and sexual orientation.

The defense's position, according to the Times, is that "Elane Photography is basically a husband-and-wife small, little commercial photography business" run by "devout Christians who have a variety of things they don't want to take pictures of." This is acceptable where, say, they don't want to do boudoir photography. Or, perhaps, produce pictures which depict a burning cross, and so forth. But is it, in this case? The defense goes on to suggest "...'the First Amendment protects artists like Mrs. Huguenin from being compelled by the state to engage in expression that violates their religious convictions.' The First Amendment 'is pretty clear that Christians should not be penalized for abiding by their beliefs,'...", and so, an interesting twist is added when we begin to discuss the compelling of an artist to make expressions that they believe violates their religious convictions.

This isn't, in the end, the same as the sale of a tangible product like a chocolate malt, or an appetizer and main course.

Remember - you are a business. And, your business falls under anti-discrimination laws just as any other "small, little commercial photography business" falls under laws that preclude the dumping of film chemicals down the drain into city water, or handicap-access to your storefront studio in that quaint downtown shopping district in Anytown USA.

Does the state have a case? Maybe, with the laws written as they are, and precedents set where other businesses have been found liable for discriminating. If the state's position is that refusal of service is comparable when made on racial grounds, as it is when made against a homosexual couple, then it's not a maybe-they-have-a-case, then they do. And it's one which will drag out in the courts for years, or get settled for a significant dollar figure. Will this photographer spend a great deal of time defending her religious position? Yes. In the end, will the photographer prevail? I don't know.

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Membership Has It's Privileges

Yesterday was the day I had been waiting for for months years (well, 18 months to be exact). It was finally time to upgrade my Macbook Pro, as Apple finally delivered their overdue refresh of the product line. I'd done some shopping around, and the price for the one I wanted - 17", 250GB HD 7200rpm, 2GB ram, 2.6Ghz processor, was $3,199. No problem, I could swing a sweet deal and pay just $2,943 - a $256 savings, through my connections. (Note, it says "order subtotal" on the savings section, and "cart subtotal" when I was doing my research.)

A little-known secret - when you buy a screen with a CPU (and a laptop qualifies as a CPU, even though it has a screen) that screen is covered by Applecare. Buy it a day later, and it's not. So, I added in a 30" monitor. Add in the Aperture 2 upgrade, a Time Capsule, AppleCare, and Microsoft Office 2008 (another secret - its cheaper to buy Office with a CPU than standalone), and I would have been paying $6,815.53, but with my connections, I saved $650.10, and am paying only $6,165.43.

Sweet!

You too can have these connections - mine comes from my membership in ASMP, which was more than paid for for a year - almost two, with this one purchase alone, and they have countless other benefits and discounts, to see the benefits, click here, and to join for this, and many many other reasons, click here!

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Getty Images - A New Beginning?

I spent a good portion of yesterday, the day that the Getty Images (NYSE: GYI) sale to Hellman & Friedman was announced, contemplating the ramifications. In between assignments, I fielded (and made) a number of calls about the aquisition.

My first inclination was "oh, they'll break up the company", and then, I started doing some serious thinking. Daryl Lang disclosed/revealed (PDNOnline: Getty Images Board OKs Private Equity Sale, 2/25/08) H&F are part owners of their parent company, AND, several respected advertising agencies and media properties. Thus, these people know the value of visual assets.

Prior to reading this revelation, I reached a similar conclusion to Daryl's - taking the company private would diminish the bean counters' grip on it's quarterly performance. I can only surmise that some degree of the decisions that were made about pricing models and so forth were done to prop up ailing bottom lines to hit Wall Street expectations. It has long been known that the bean counters are a poison pill for the creative community, looking to squeeze in places that are detrimental. While surely H&F will want quality performance and revenues (more on that in a minute), there will be much less pressure to perform like a circus monkey to make the traders happy and entertained.

I expect that JDK will remain on board for the short term, and then leave when H&F feels they have taken the reins, in a smooth transition. He's surely made more than his fair share of bad decisions, highlighted by the bright light that is required of publicly traded companies, and I was (and where applicable, will continue to be) highly critical whenever they are bad for the long term good of the creative community.

So, what changes might we see? More than one person I spoke with concurred that the Getty "wire service" is ripe for the chopping block, which was my thinking as well. One need only look at the history of United Press International, the once famed photo wire, and compare it to where it is today. The Associated Press' photo wire service, over the years, has had it's struggles, and, as a standalone entity not been viable, but, bolstered by the combination of text and photos, has survived, in large part, because it is a co-operative, owned essentially by it's member papers. Last May Reuters reported on it's own sale to Thomson (Thomson, Reuters to forge global info leader) for 17.2B.

Getty's "always gotta be there" mentality may be stretching this underperforming department thin. With WireImage's acquisition, they have made covering celebrity events profitable (to a degree), where the $100 an event schmucks that turn up with their consumer-level equipment with pop-up flashes and 24-300mm f4.5-f8 zooms have had a detrimental effect on celebrity coverage. When WireImage can charge, say, a perfume company $5,000+ to cover an event in NYC, pay the photographer $250, own all the rights, sell the images worldwide, and reap the profits from what used to be images that were handed out freely, that's a profitable paradigm. If only those photographers would take the $250 as a guarantee against future sales, and be a party to that income stream, or, get more of the $5k that WireImage is charging (and make no mistake about that, that IS a real figure) for these types of events, that would be fair. Getty has also secured profitable arrangements with sports leagues, and while not wholly journalistic in nature (i.e. looking for images that put a league in a dim/bad light, like fights, and you find slim pickings), they (the new buyers, who own a few ad agencies) also know that providing services to advertising clients with discriminating tastes and demands (read: profitable) is where the money is. So, I'd look at their wire-service like coverage and staffing to be under a serious microscope in the coming year.

As an interesting anecdote, taking the 70 million image that Getty reportedly has in it's collections, and doing some simple math, you arrive at $34.29 per image for a $2.4B acquisition, valued at $34 a share. Coincidence? Yes, but an interesting observation none-the-less.

They jury is still out on this, and I look with a questionable eye at many of the decisions that Getty has made over the past few years. However, this may well be a new beginning. I'm not holding my breath, but I am holding out hope that it could be a good thing.

(Comments, after the Jump)

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Worth Revisiting - Teachable Moments, Hypocrites, and Client Dialog

Sometimes, it's worth looking back and reminding folks of the great content that is on this blog that you, dear reader, may have missed because you weren't reading, say, last January!

At least the Hypocrite Knows Right from Wrong

I have a great regard for photojournalist P.F. Bentley. Back in 1989, when I was a young, inexperienced buck, I ran across P.F. in San Francisco while I was covering the San Francisco Earthquake and he and I talked for awhile. We looked on with amazement as another photojournalist took some "police line do not cross" yellow tape and moved it so it looked better in her photo. We both shook our heads at this ethical breach, yet I was probably more shaking my head because PF was, not because I disagreed, but because, I was taking a que from him, as he affirmed what I knew to be wrong.

PF was celebrated by the President of Time in this article, which reads, in part, "...Gingrich's heady first 100 days were documented close-up by TIME's prizewinning photographer P.F. Bentley. "P.F.'s passion is recording history as it happens," says picture editor Michele Stephenson. "He has great instincts, and he gets rare access because his subjects trust him."

Yet, this trust seemed to actually not carry much weight with the folks at Time, when they devolved their contract with onerous additional rights demands without increasing compensation to their contributors several years back.....CONTINUE READING!

Teachable Moments

There are times where you are more susceptible to learning-and retaining-knowledge than others. Take the proverbial parent who said to me once "Johnny, don't touch that hotplate, it's hot. That's what cooks the pancakes." and what did I do? Defiantly looked at my mother square in the eyes, and put my hand on it. Lesson learned.

It's when you sign a contract with bad terms in it that you learn not to do it again. It's when you estimate an assignment for a portrait that is outdoors and that you will be using a large softbox on it, and you don't include an assistant to keep hold of the soon-to-be airborne softbox, lightstand, and flash head, that you learn to always book atleast one assistant for an outdoor assignment. It's a costly mistake to repair that head, one that you cannot pass on to the client and must now absorb.....CONTINUE READING!

Wise Words for your Client Dialog - When there's a problem or Question

Woe be the photographer who does not respect the value of customer service as a key to their longevity in the business. Your choice of words can make a big difference when dealing with clients and ensure that you keep them coming back....CONTINUE READING!

Now, go check them out, and don't forget, there's over a year's worth of insights (and a few rants!) that are worth reading!

(Comments, if any, after the Jump)

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Effective SEO - Please Welcome liveBooks

I've been in the "website game" since about 1995, with my first website on my Compuserve webspace. My second website is still floating around the internet, housed on AOL's servers. I recall switching between NCSA Mosaic and NetManage's Chameleon. Each year, the web expanded, and I endeavored to keep up. Pre-Google, the game in town was Yahoo, Altavista, and the like. Staying abreast of everything took a great deal of effort, but being online, bleeding edge, has been profitable for me as a photographer. A few years ago, I was finally able to place my trust in someone to do re-do my entire site, with a critical concern being to remain in my current positions for the various search terms that were important to me. At the time, there were no effective turnkey solutions, and moreover, because of the 100+ pages of pricing and other information, only a custom solution would work for me.

Since then, a field that was limited, at best, has grown. Anyone with Dreamweaver now calls themselves a website designer, and anyone with Google's ADD URL url calls themselves a search engine optimizer. Moreover, if you can compartmentalize your flash/javascript with a few variables, and tweak an e-commerce backend, you will call yourself a website service provider.

Below are links to several really amazing studies and other click-able insights.

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Some of these purveyors have built something, and they're being used, and they're not SEO optimized, nor really easy to use. It's like the programmer built it, sold it, and continues to sell it, without significant interest in additional revisions, with the "if it ain't broke, don't revise it..." mentality.

Yet one service - liveBooks, continues a commitment to excellence, and has now come on board as an advertiser here. I've meet with these folks over the past year on a variety of issues. At first, I was skeptical, for SEO reasons. They established, and have revised, their HTML/SEO-friendly shadow pages. They're made much of their client commitment doing everything they can to make it easy for their customers' sites to be found.

Rob Haggert, known better to most as A Photo Editor, wrote:

Livebooks: I’ve said it before, “I love livebooks.” They revolutionized the online portfolio. Big, vibrant photos and not much else. I’m not shillin’ for them at all and I can honestly say photographers have risen a notch in my book by switching to their product. Contributor Terence Patrick coined it “the black leather portfolio book of the web.” That’s how I feel about it as well. If you can’t beat it, don’t bother.

Yup, and I still have some of those black leather portfolios in my office from my analog days.

Last November, during a trip to San Francisco, I stopped in to liveBooks' offices, met their team of people - your potential team of people - and talked about all things web. From SEO, to functionality, update-ability, and so forth, we covered everything.

Think that liveBooks sites can't rank on SEO? Think again. I did a little research about how well they are doing on that front. Check the following sites where liveBooks sites are ranking extremely well (click the ranking link to see the position for yourself) :

Photographer	Search term	Google	Yahoo
Brad Mangin	Sports Photographer	Google #1	Yahoo-#3
	San Franciso Sports Photographer	Google-#3	Yahoo-#3
Lou Manna	food photographer	Google-#2	Yahoo-#14
Ken Weingart	headshot photographer	Google-#3	Yahoo-#33
	Los Angeles fashion photography	Google-#3	Yahoo-#11

One very valuable insight is this article, from awhile ago, about search position versus click-throughs, and just how where you fall is critical. They also did an "EyeTracker study" which is absolutely worth reading, and shows just how much attention there is on the first page. It's extremely insightful.

The one - and there's only one, really - concern I hear from people who've done some of their research into website options and liveBooks - and that is one of cost. It's just over $3k for their full package. Once those people have actually completed their research, they realize that it's atleast that much for a well designed site, if not more. Further, the update-ability of their new custom site isn't easy - certainly not as easy as liveBooks. And, there's no team of people that remains, on the backend, looking for ways to improve a product you've already purchased. Many site designers have moved on to their next project, and requests for updates/fixes take a back seat.

So, please join me in welcoming liveBooks as an advertiser here.

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ASMP SB2 - ATLANTA This Friday!

If you're reading this blog, you should be there! The second of what will be a total of four stops takes place starting this Friday, February 22, in Atlanta. If you missed LA, I did a video report on it (here) and it has been widely reviewed as a success, with people traveling to LA from as far away as Alaska and Florida. So, this isn't something that you should be saying "oh, it's not near me, I'm not going." Planes, trains, or automobiles - it doesn't matter how you get there, because this is worth traveling for! It is going to be a remarkable weekend that will either get you started right, or bolster your existing business skills.

At this program you won't learn lighting, or video, or any other skill-set except how to run your business better and more efficiently. Beginners have come away with massive amounts of information and exceptional resources, while long-time photographers have taken away new tools and refined their current business practices to be better and more efficient in how they run their existing businesses.

Need to know about marketing? ASMP has brought in Leslie Burns Dell'Acqua to give you real tools to use to begin to market yourself, or to evolve how you marketing into the new era that is e-mail and the latest in marketing trends, helping you to reach your intended audience.

Blake Discher is also on hand to discuss the great unknown that is client negotiations and gets you thinking in the right direction about how to price your work so you stay in business.

Don't know how to store, archive, and deliver your work safely? ASMP's President, Judy Herrmann will set you straight about how to protect yourself from the inevitable hard drive crash, and deliver clients images when they want, and how they want them. Judy knows a great deal on the subject, and listening to her is like pouring pure octane into your gas tank - you're getting so much fast-burn information, every tidbit is valuable.

Further, and what is the starting point, Richard Kelly and Susan Carr start off with the basics, and make sure we're all on the same page, establishing baselines and foundations so we all are on the same bus together.

(Continued after the Jump)

Oh, and I'm also there talking about the critical tools for your photography business. It's like this blog, come to life, with a bit more restraint and carefully chosen words than you might find here, except the information I'll be presenting is, as it's titled, critical to your business, including copyright registration, dealing with contracts (both yours and the clients), and so forth. As I said before, if you're reading this blog, you should be there.

But it doesn't stop there, because that was just DAY ONE!

Ready for day 2? We spend the morning training you to negotiate better. We show you how we do it in several situations, role-playing, and then we break up into small groups, and guide these groups of 15 or so through the process, pausing and refining, and everyone else gets to chime in - it's all very interactive.

After lunch (included, on both days!), there are smaller workshops, delivering more details and specifics on Marketing to Move Your Business Forward; Business Workflow to Bring You Profits; Taking Control of Your Career; and Is Your Website Doing All It Can to Get You Work?. Don't worry though, they are repeated, so you can take two of the four.

Not enough? You're crazy then, but, well, ok - how about we have Sean Kearnan give the keynote on Saturday night, before the free Digital Railroad reception that's included? Kearnan gave the keynote in LA, and it was a not-to-be-missed experience (literally!)

Register now, figure out how you'll get there next!

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Moms With Cameras - Revisited

One of the many problems for photographers is how those who couldn't care less about the business of photography do damage to the business of photography. Often, these are people who have other jobs that pay the bills, and they look to photo credit to give them pleasure, acclaim, and notoriety, getting their satisfaction at the expense -- literally -- of those who earn a living making pictures. Many times, these are "moms with cameras", or MWCs. What I'd like to highlight today is something different. It's a MWC who is endeavoring to do things right.

She is writing a blog, titled "Hey Girl, Nice Shot - It takes more than a camera to go pro." She's got several posts I'd like to highlight, and encourage you to read. They are:

(Continue reading at Black Star Rising)

(Comments, if any, after the Jump)

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