Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Seliger - Art With No Strobes

Sometimes, for even the most talented of photographers, no strobes are necessary. Heck, not even added continuous light sources (besides the sun). Such is the case in this video from GQ behind the scenes with Mark Seliger.



I

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Thursday, March 11, 2010

Speedlink: Stop the $200 Assignment!

Usually, I wait to post a bunch of speed links, but this one's worth standing on it's own!

Now go! Check 'em out, and come back soon!
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Monday, March 8, 2010

First Amendment - Highly Overrated?

Below is a video clip that's 22 minutes in length, but don't bother watching it all. Advance to 15:37 and watch 5 seconds of it, where White House Chief of Staff tells a reporter for Washington Life Magazine "The First Amendment is highly over-rated" while he arrived at The White House Correspondents Association Dinner in 2009. Over-rated? Really? Was Rahm joking, or is this what he really believes?


(Apologies that apparently you have to wait for the entire video file to load before you can advance to that point in the video.)

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Saturday, March 6, 2010

Reminder: NPPA's Northern Short Course THIS WEEK!

For the last decade, I've supported the National Press Photographers Association Northern Short Course as a presenter. This year, for three days, we'll be in New Brunswick, New Jersey (exit 9!) March 11th through 13th. I present on, what else? - the business of photography. Here's the entire program, which includes William Foster on social marketing/websites, Paula Lerner on multimedia, Tom Sperduto on lighting, courses on audio, Final Cut Pro, and portfolio reviews, and more!. Check it out! (I blogged about it last year too here).

Come for a day, or really treat yourself and come for all three days - it is, HANDS DOWN, the most cost-effective solution to learn all about lighting/multimedia/Final Cut/etc.

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Friday, March 5, 2010

CoolTech - iPhone Emergency Solution

How many times have you been without a much-needed recharging solution with your non-battery-swapable iPhone? For me, it is all to often, and I just can't risk losing a call because of a dead iPhone. So, friend and colleague, virginia corporate headshots photographer Mark Finkenstaedt had a solution. Mark did all the hard work doing this testing, and here are the results.

This battery, by ebay seller scr-boya (other listings here) lists the following features:

-Capacity:1900mAh
-100% Brand New
-Dimension:67mm X 62mm X 15mm
-Input:5V 0.8A
-Output: 5V 0.5A
-Charge time: About 4 hours
-Colour: Black only


At right is one of the four of mine that I won, on eBay, for $0.99 each, plus $8.99 shipping (each!) from China. So how long does it take for the battery charge to fully charge?


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When the 10% battery warning indicator came on, the battery was installed, and below is the timeline for it to charge:
(click to enlarge)

At $10 per unit (including shipping, and I tried getting more, but no response), I can justify buying several (which I did) and now I have a backup in my car, camera bag, and two rotating on chargers in the office. The seller shipped both to Mark and I (from China) without any problems, so if you're looking for a great solution, this one one gem that has already saved me from a dead iPhone battery. There are other sellers on eBay with variations on this item, so you might find others that work just as well, but so far so good with this seller!

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Thursday, March 4, 2010

World Press Photo - Disqualification of Image

For World Press Photo 2010, the bar has been raised to a high level with the new requirement of the submission of RAW image files for review alongside any image that the judges suspected were excessively manipulated. Below is the collection of images for review:

The DQ'd entrant, Stepan Rudik wrote over at PetaPixel (here) in part "...I do NOT argue the decision of the jury...." and then he goes on to attempt to justify the alteration he made, and then hopes " I believe this explanation is important for my reputation and good name as a reportage photographer."

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Doubtful.

A quick search on Google for "Stepan Rudik" turns up all manner of listing regarding this issue, so, good luck getting your good name back.

Rudik cannot hold out this image as reportage, but rather, as an illustration. He created digitally what he wanted to see and not what was actually captured. Did the manipulation change the content of the image? No, I think that the crop did (yes, allowable), and he really mis-treated the image with the excessive vignetting, over-contrast, and so on. Frankly, I think he did more of a disservice to the honesty of the image with the over-manipulation than he did with the removal of the shoe, but, unfortunately, that over-manipulation seems to have been allowable.

Rudik damaged not just the integrity of the image, but of himself and his honesty, but also the integrity of photojournalism.

Digital manipulation is going to be a very slippery slope, and the honesty of what we capture must be a paramount consideration, not chasing the self-aggrandizement in a photo contest.


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Friday, February 26, 2010

Getty Images CEO Jonathan Klein - Delusional, Deceptive, or a Liar?

Yesterday, Getty Images CEO Jonathan Klein was interviewed for almost four minutes about the Getty deal with the Olympics on CNBC. At about 2:28 into the interview, the issue of the Tiger Woods image made recently was raised (see link in 'Related' at end of article), and at approximately 2:47, Klein says "... we don't do paparazzi images..." and I about fell off my chair. In fact, when I read it over on Paul Melcher's Perception Management blog post, I couldn't believe it, I had to watch it myself, so, before I go any further, and to avoid and suggestions about taking something out of context, here's the video to watch for yourself:











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Now, let's just take one more precaution here, and get the definition of Paparazzi:
pa·pa·raz·zo (pä'pə-rät'sō)
n. pl. pa·pa·raz·zi (-sē)
A freelance photographer who doggedly pursues celebrities to take candid pictures for sale to magazines and newspapers.
(Source: Dictionary.com)
Ok, with that established, I'll encourage you to head over to Paul Melcher's blog (here) and look at several of his examples of paparazzi candid photography that Getty has. As we wrote here - Getty Images And Paparazzi Pictures (3/9/09), Getty's site is replete with images that are paparazzi images, celebrities captured in unguarded moments, intrusive actions by photographers to get "the picture", and so on. At right is a previous example of a paparazzi image that Getty Images had on their website - in other words, this image is proof positive that Getty Images is in the business of profiting from paparazzi images, whether or not they shot them, but their photographers do shoot them as well.

With all of this, the question about JDK's World and what increasingly seems to be some form of an altered reality arises. The proof is on his own website, so is Jonathan Klein just delusional because he doesn't peruse his own content? Or, is Jonathan Klein trying to deceive the public so they think that Getty Images is pure as the driven snow? Or, is Jonathan Klein telling a bold-faced lie with a straight face? Without knowing if he looks at his own content, which, arguably is in the tens of thousands of images in any given day, there is a fraction of a chance he doesn't know and thus, can't be lying, but then what does that say about his knowledge of the business he co-founded?

Related:

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Thursday, February 25, 2010

Fair Use of Copyrighted Works - A Reasoned Perspective

"Fair Use" when it comes to copyrighted works gets tossed around by so many people often trying to hide behind it so as to not have to pay for use when they should, or because they were too lazy to find the owner (or, to be fair, couldn't, and decided to do it anyway.) Public Knowledge held the first World's Fair Use Day back in January (more here) and PC World (here) cited participants of that event as having said "...U.S. copyright law should be updated to better reflect the changing ways that mashup artists and other new content creators use existing works," seemingly suggesting as a premise that, somehow, these mash-up artists had the right to create derivative works from a copyrighted work without the originating creators' permission. So, I thought this might be a good opportunity to ask the Executive Director of The Copyright Alliance, Patrick Ross, to share his thoughts in this guest post.



By Patrick Ross, Executive Director, The Copyright Alliance

The phrase “fair use” may conjure up the image of legal fights between goliaths, say Google as a defendant against name-your-copyright-owner. Or it might make one think of someone’s cry for mercy when caught avoiding licensing, a cry many photographers attribute to Shepard Fairey.

There is merit to having the ability to make reasonable use of another’s copyrighted work; as a professional journalist most of my adult life I practiced fair use every day. It is also worth noting that not just journalists but millions of Americans are finding innovative ways to make use of this legal exception to the rights of copyright owners.

Unfortunately, some who wish to see dramatic new reductions to the rights of artists and creators are twisting the definition of “fair use” to the point where it more accurately resembles “free use.”
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Recently a Washington-based lobbying group called Public Knowledge declared a new global holiday -- “World’s Fair Use Day” – undeterred by the fact that fair use is almost exclusive to U.S. law. They also built a conference around this day of celebration. The event’s premise? The false accusation that fair use is under assault by big media baddies “who want to own our culture.”

On one panel, mash-up artists discussed their rather creative uses of others’ creativity. They also tended to contradict themselves.

For example, one suggested that income on an artistic work should basically be capped, after which it would be considered free culture and part of the public domain. He later said it has been his lifelong dream to support himself with his art.

Another praised the art of filmmaking, then said that creating a film from scratch, rather than mashing up existing work, would be terribly cost prohibitive because “writing a script and filming is very expensive.” Well yes. Yes it is.

The most glaring contradiction, however, was that these mash-up artists were supposed to be there to discuss how copyright law stifles them, but instead they were discussing creative projects they had successfully produced within the law.

The resulting – and I suspect unintended -- message was that fair use is in fact alive and well. So why incite fear of the loss of our culture?

Because fear is the ultimate tool to effect social change. If there is nothing to fear and you still wish to effect change, then you must create your own bogeyman.

This philosophy is well understood by the conference organizers, who have an ambitious agenda to deny creators almost any say over the reproduction and distribution of their creativity.

That agenda has nothing to do with fair use.

What artists and creators should recognize – not to mention the policymakers targeted by these advocates -- is the tried and true tactic of “moving the goal posts.” First you redefine fair use, and then you conflate it with your objections to the broader restrictions of copyright.

Here’s an example. A few months ago, Harvard professor and self-proclaimed copyright critic Charles Nesson filed in court an argument that allowing the distribution from his computer of hundreds of copyrighted songs to millions of strangers was “fair use.” Fortunately, the judge found this so preposterous that she didn’t even allow it into the courtroom. The result? Nesson’s client pled guilty to online infringement before the trial even began.

Nesson said before the trial that his case was about “defending the average Davids against the corporate Goliath.” Not to be outdone in the cliché department, the founders of an infringing photographic online magazine compared themselves to Robin Hood. Their “Pilfered Magazine” encouraged the submission and online publication of copyrighted works submitted without the permission or even the awareness of the photographer. When did stealing from an artist become conflated with a band of “Merry Men” stealing from the rich?

Photographers rallied in recent weeks against “Pilfered” and now every infringing image has been taken down. The founders now say they are “re-imagining [their] perspective” and going forward will only post photographs with permission. Nesson was rebuffed by a judge, but the “Pilfered” founders were reversed by a cacophonous chorus of creators.

Fair use is nothing but a limited restriction on the rights of creators. If you dislike creators having rights, the easiest avenue to taking those rights away is to slip a crowbar into an existing limitation and pry it open. The best way to get folks on your side is to incite fear. It’s that simple.

All copyright owners and creators should speak out for their rights and help others distinguish between fair use and infringement. They can do so knowing that fair use is alive and well in our society, enriching our culture while not unduly undermining the critical rights of artists and creators.



Select Insightful Copyright Alliance Blog Posts:


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Thursday, February 18, 2010

Digital Photo Rights - Don't Just Give Away The Farm

The FUTURE of all photographic uses is digital. No one doubts that print will be the antiquated backwater in just a few years. Learn from the mistakes of the publishing industry which gave away its content for free and then watched their print income evaporate, almost overnight. Learn from the publishing industry that ad/usage rates in the online arena had to be a sustainable figure on its' own, and not a parlor trick on a balance sheet.

Your images - your intellectual property - must be valued in both print and digital/online realms at a sustainable level. Just as photographers survived the shift from film to digital by establishing pricing models that were sustainable, and shunned the notion that clients attempted to foist upon us by saying "it's digital, so it's cheaper, just give me a jpeg." Now is the beginning of the time where the shift to digital will become even more pronounced, with the Wall Street Journal and New York Times beginning the shift to charging for online content, and the iPad setting the stage for the next evolution, just as the iPod/iTunes duo set the stage for the future of digital music.

Below is a great WIRED Magazine video on their iPad version:


No, go and read Paul Melchers piece - Share It - where he does an excellent job in advising you about avoiding a few of the pitfalls that are just down the road.


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Wednesday, February 17, 2010

10 Questions for: Richard Kelly

Over the years, there have been good elected leaders at the helm of ASMP, and less-than-stellar elected leaders. One of the great leaders is photographer Richard Kelly, and he most certainly should be re-elected, and also serve a second term as ASMP President. I first met Kelly when I travelled to the Pittsburgh ASMP chapter to give a presentation over 5 years ago, and then we started working together on the ASMP Strictly Business 2 series. All along, Richard has demonstrated a street-tested savvy as an ASMP leader because he is a full time photographer as well. He knows all to well the reality of being in business, because he IS in business, first as a photographer, and then, brings his skills to the fore to lead ASMP in the right direction.

While Richard has submitted a ballot statement, he also answered a series of questions and answers that were posed from the membership. His ballot statement is here, and the ASMP Q&A is here. However, we thought it of value to continue our "10 Questions for..." series, and call upon Richard for his answers. Below are his answers to our questions, and while yesterday marked the first day you could cast your ballot online here, I encourage you to first read his answers, and then, yes, go vote for him You'll need the password that ASMP e-mailed you with the subject line "Your ASMP election information".

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1. You're running for re-election to the ASMP board, and I presume, you'd like to return for a second term as President. Why?
For the last 3 years in my board role, I've had an opportunity to move the needle on important initiatives for photographers across the country. My role as President allows me to directly impact the profession we all pursue so passionately--so yes, I'd like to return as President to continue working for our members.
2. What achievements are you most proud of during your tenure on the ASMP board?
Education has been a big part of my agenda, so as a board member Strictly Business 2 and the continuous growth of the ASMP seminars series are both important achievements for me.

In the big picture, its been the opportunity to take a critical look at the short and long term challenges and opportunities both for publication photographers as well as ASMP, and then applying that research to writing the new Strategic Plan. That plan is the map that ASMP will navigate over the next five years and it was important for us to have a master plan with clear outcomes that will positively impact the industry.
3. Aside from the achievements in #2, what achievements or projects during your term as President are you most proud of?
I spoke to a number of members when I started this role, and what I heard most often was that they wanted more information from the organization. I think we've made great strides in improving the ways and frequency of how we communicate with chapter leaders and members. We want members to be informed about the industry at large--as well as about what ASMP is doing in response.

Under my leadership, ASMP has embraced social media not only as a means of communicating with members but encouraging our members to learn and use these new tools. ASMP was the only photography organization to have a professional analysis of social media companies terms of service agreements, arming the larger community of photographers with information they could use when utilizing these web services.

I also initiated both the multimedia and motion video educational programming and went the next step by creating the motion video study group, which delivered an industry resource for photographers now creating motion video for clients. http://asmp.org/tutorials/video-tutorial.html

Looking out beyond today, I challenge the board to think differently, I encourage our members to think about what it means to be a professional, in an age when everyone with a camera is a photographer, I emphasize the need to renew our focus on copyright and register our work with the copyright office and give people the knowledge to do this by hosting hands-on workshops.

This focus on copyright goes beyond the actions of our members--its also working with software companies, independent developers and the copyright office to create registration access during the photographers regular workflow, and being part of the conversation with the big thinkers of copyright in New York City at the Registration Counts Symposium April 21, 2010. http://asmp.org/content/registration-counts
4. If you are re-elected to the board and in turn, for a second term as ASMP President, what one or two projects are you most excited about?
Continuing what I started, pushing ASMP and publication photographers to expand business strategies and models to adjust to our new economy and business demands. ASMP is the thought leader of our industry and I want to take that up a notch. But what photographers really need today is advocacy and education to help them move their businesses in a new direction.
5. How do you see the creative landscape for photographers (i.e. ASMP members) in the coming next few years?
This is a great time to be a photographer, the opportunities for telling your story your way is unprecedented. It is very exciting when I see photographers using these new platforms.
6. How do you see the business/economic landscape for photographers (i.e. ASMP members) in the coming next few years?
It is going to be challenging--not just for ASMP members and photographers but for small businesses in general. We'll survive only if we venture forward and leave behind some of the 'way it used to be done' thinking, in favor of, 'how can we do it better?'
7. How do you think that ASMP will serve its members as it regards the landscape of dealing the the realities of business in the near term?
We continue to focus efforts on opportunities for photographers to expand their markets and creativity. There is not one solution that will work for every photographer, but we want to provide them with educational and support resources to rethink their businesses.
8. ASMP, I believe, benefits from full-time working photographers serving on the board, because they know in a way no one else can, the realities of being in business. Can you share a few of your recent assignments with us (with or without naming clients, as you are comfortable)?
In my market I do primarily editorial and corporate assignments. In Pittsburgh, that translates into annual reports and features about business and innovation. I am currently working on an annual report for a non-profit that has me traveling throughout the state and I just completed two editorial projects featuring people who are making a difference in the community.
9. It seems that ASMP has grown in the past few years. How do you envision the growth of ASMP will be in the near term?
I believe ASMP is offering photographers very targeted and relevant information and resources and I do not see any other photographer group offering what we offer. In the past year, many new professionals are entering the freelance world especially from newspapers and these photographers want the same resources that the longstanding members want and need. This is the growth ASMP is seeing and will continue to see short term.
10. How has what you have learned as an ASMP member benefited your bottom line?
That my peer network is unparalleled in helping me resolve challenges, that I can't ever ignore marketing and that I can't stop moving at the speed of the rest of the industry.
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