US Open + Craigslist + PR Company = Idiocy

Craigslist and the idiocy of what must be an intern at a PR company in NYC strikes again!

Let's parse this ad (red text is my commentary):

Photographer Needed for High Profile Client (Idianapolis) (in other words, we're willing to risk a high profile client's happiness for a few thousand dollars in photographer fees we'd rather not pay, even though our account executives bill out at $300 or so an hour)

New York City based Public Relations Company (a company paying hundreds of dollars per square foot and probably $40-$60k to a junior account executive) is seeking a photographer for a small photo shoot (hmm, portrait? lights? catering? Studio rental? Pro gear?) with a well known professional tennis player (yes, we're willing to risk the free photographer being inappropriate on set, having non-pro gear that might break down with no backup gear, on a well known professional athlete, oh, and let's hope that the free photographer actually turns up since they may not have enough subway tokens to get to the shoot!). Great way to add photos to your portfolio and work with a great company. (Also a mindset that is sure to build up a clientele looking for you to always shoot for free, and if it's such a great company, why don't they have even a reasonable amount of money to pay for a pro shoot?) Photos will be used in a marketing campaign geared towards the US Open. (Yes, photos could end up on Times Square Billboards, US Open program ads, and murals around the venue, not to mention ads in the newspaper, but you won't get paid while they potentially pay tens-of-thousands to reproduce your great photography.)

Although there isn't financial compensation for this project (for you, the photographer. The account executive will get paid, the studio you have to rent will get paid, the car service that brings the pro athlete will get paid, the cell phone bill that the account exec has for all the calls related to the shoot will get paid, the athlete will benefit and may even get paid an appearance fee if the marketing isn't for the athlete, but some apparel company, but you, the creative talent behind the photo - to paraphrase the Soup Nazi - "no money for you!"), full credit is given (what? In 6-point type in the gutter? In 24 point bold text at the bottom of the ads? How do you define "full"? What will be the ramifications if you don't give credit? What if it's a hand-out photo for PR and the newspaper that agrees to run the photo has a policy of not crediting hand-outs, or they forget?) as well as opportunity for future work with a magazine (right - future FREE work, because they already know you'll work for free). We will work to create a great credit package for the right photographer! (nice - you, the account exec, billed $150 for the time necessary to create this craigslist ad, and you'll spend another few hours culling through the idiots that respond to this ad, and then, you'll give the photographer total freedom to realize their creative ideas and genius!)

Please email us for details ASAP, as this project would be taking place with-in the next few days. (translation - we weren't thinking and this is just some stupid idea we hatched and it may not even go ahead, but if we can get someone for free while our athlete is on layover in Indianopolis for a few hours, we'll get a freebie shoot out of it. What's the worst that can happen? The photos suck and we didn't pay anything, and we didn't PROMISE the photos would be used.)

Below is the actual ad, and the link to the ad if you want to write them. It might be interesting for someone to find out the PR firm's name and get in touch with the head of that office to let them know how their junior staff are coming up with hair-brained ideas like this putting their celebrity clients at risk with you-get-what-you-pay-for caliber photographers....

(Continued after the Jump)

Photographer Needed for High Profile Client (Idianapolis)

---

Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.

Social Networking Solutions for Photographers

So often, I get calls from friends and colleagues about how to handle online marketing and social media. How do I set up a facebook page? How do I use social media to maximize my business? Most solutions are generally offerred, except one, now, just for photographers - The Linked Photographers' Guide to Online Marketing and Social Media. I know both authors well, and have read the book and think you'll benefit from it, regardless of your level of experience.

Everything form How-to's, to explanations as to why, and why not. When it comes to getting "with it" on social networking, there is no better guide for photographers available, and at under $20, what's not to love about it?

(Comments, if any, after the Jump)

---

Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.

Trampling on First Amendment - AGAIN

Today's Washington Post has an interesting article - Freedom of photography: Police, security often clamp down despite public right (7/26/10) whereby, yet again, a uniformed officer detained someone taking photographs. Yet, a directive from the New York City police reveals what common sense tells most of us already about photographing buildings like this - "practically all such photography will have no connection to terrorism or unlawful conduct", according to the article.

While I don't know much about the photographer, Matt Urick, it seems from this report that, yet again, the police have over-reacted. Yet, the police, in trying to acknowledge the photographer had the right "Some people will figure, 'I have a right to take pictures,' and we are not arguing with that", said the President of the DC lodge of the Fraternal Order of the Police, but he then is cited as saying "An officer also has a right to his or her safety and to control the situation", and that's just such a far-reaching statement that it begs arguing. Cameras don't impinge on an officers safety, and to suggest that anyone has the right to "control the situation" is akin to the persuasive attempts by the gestapo to control situations. What "situation?" No officer can take away a constitutional right unless the excercise thereof could take away someone elses' constitutional right. The proverbial "your right to swing your fists wildly stops at the tip of my nose" comes to mind. Thus, the photographing done by this photographer was well within his rights.

(Comments, if any, after the Jump)

---

Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.

What's a CD Cover Worth?

There are two stories to take away from this article - Vampire Weekend's Cover Art 'Contra'-versy: Model Sues Band for $2 Million.



First - you have a model who did not sign a model release and who's likeness was used in the marketing and advertising of a rock band. Her story - a Polaroid "snapshot" of the model, taken by her mother may well have been something given to a charity bazaar (during a house-cleaning?). This is but one risk of the Orphan Works legislation, yet, right now, the model has recourse, to the tune of $2,000,000. If Orphan Works were passed, surely her mother (the photographer) wouldn't have recourse, but, would the subject?

And now, a second consideration.

(Continued after the Jump)

All to often, bands claim to have no money to pay for photography - let alone the visual images they use to market their albums/CD's. It's not uncommon for bands to want to pay $100 (or only photo credit!) up to $500. In this case, an "INDIE" group, through a small label, "reportedly paid $5,000 to use the picture". Being paid for cover uses is critical, and values an skyrocket. For example, Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto's photograph, "Boden Sea", was used on the cover for U2's "No Line on the Horizon" album cover, "Sugimoto's only stipulation was that no text could be placed on top of the image." according to Wikipedia. The arists made a deal, according to The Japan Times (here) "Bono agreed on an "artist-to-artist" barter whereby Sugimoto could use the "No Line on the Horizon" song in any project he wanted in the future." What's the unlimited use of a U2 song worth?

This point is not to be missed - rock bands typically want to pay a fraction of the true value that an album cover image should license for. That image will become synonymous with the artist and album. It will be used in advertising, marketing, and so on, for years to come. The ability of the photographer to relicense that image for exclusive use will not exist in the music industry, and may well be an issue for other industries as well. Further, and don't fall for this one - the record label may say they have to have all rights in perpetuity!

In the end, if you're a hobbyist photographer (as this model's mom was) and you have a polaroid, and the band is an indie band, and the record label is a small one, then the album cover art is STILL worth AT LEAST $5,000.

---

Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.

BP Guilty of What?

When photographers working for corporate clients get a request to digitally alter an image, it gets done, plain and simple. Now, that photograph should never be presented as an unretouched image to editorial/news outlets, but if the purpose of the photograph is to have the image placed on a corporate website for marketing purposes, then while people have a right to beware, the company is not, for a minute, holding out a "handout" photo as unretouched, unless it says so, or the photographer presenting the image says so.

So BP gets in a bit of hot water with their retouching, here - BP's Photoshopped Crisis Command Center Is Terrible On Every Level, but what's the problem?

For me, when I do work for a corporate client, and I make that image available to a news outlet, I have not ever, nor would I ever, allow an image to be manipulated in any way beyond a standard set of guidelines that are familiar to those in the news media, and dropping in a screen would be a big big no-no. I have, on more than one occasion, told a corporate client I could not do something they asked because the intended recipient was a news outlet. However, if the intended recipient is a corporate website, then things as simple as removing blemishes on a portrait and as extensive as merging images, is completely within bounds.

It seems that BP placed a photo on their website, and it was either an old one with new screen grabs added in, or the metadata that was added was wrong. Either way though, it's marketing materials, plain and simple. If someone wants a news photograph, then you have to call in a news photographer - either a freelancer with a trusted track record, or one on staff for a news outlet. While I think that the only thing BP is guilty of is bad photoshop work, what do you think?

(Comments, if any, after the Jump)

---

Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.

How To Get Ad Agencies to Work for Free

On the heals of the 12 Excuses for Shooting Photos for Free — and Why They’re Bogus post, comes a post from Advertising Age, demonstrating that even the ad execs that ply us with "shoot this one for free and the next one will be a big dollar job..." get hit with the same craziness that we do!

In their article - How To Get Ad Agencies to Work for Free - Phil Johnson outlines a number of the tactics. Here's one:

"I'm not sure what the budget is just yet, but it will be significant if you can develop some ideas that we can sell to the executive team."

head on over and read the rest, including insights onto a company that is charging for the opportunity to even pitch them!

(Comments, if any, after the Jump)

---

Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.

12 Excuses for Shooting Photos for Free — and Why They’re Bogus

Every so often, I post over at the blog of my agent, Black Star. My most recent post is - "12 Excuses for Shooting Photos for Free — and Why They’re Bogus". Below is #5 - and go check out the other 11 here.

5. Every photography job I’ve ever gotten has been through word of mouth — often because I did something for free first.

Right, word of mouth. As in, “Hey, I know this photographer who will shoot for free…” Congratulations! You’ve just become known all over town as the guy who doesn’t expect to be paid for his work. Maybe if you’re lucky, you’ll even get a client who offers to buy you lunch.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

(Comments, if any after the Jump)

---

Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.

PhotoPLUS 2010 - Delivering What You Promise on Global Assignments

In October, I will be presenting a new program at the 2010 PhotoPLUS Expo, that discusses the challenges of delivering images on assignment, around the world, for a broad spectrum of clients. While PhotoPLUS hasn't released the full program yet, I wanted readers of this blog to get a heads up to the new program (I did get permission from the folks at PPE to announce this though!)

Here are the details:

COMMERCIAL/ EDITORIAL
Thursday, 8:45 AM – 11:45 AM

NEW! Delivering What You Promise on Global Assignments [TA3]
John Harrington
Sponsored by Cengage

Once the assignment has been booked and contracts signed, delivering on your promise is often one of the most challenging parts of the job. The key to longevity in the business is making sure the client gets what you said they would, despite the logistics of getting there, the challenges of pre-visualizing the final image and the demands of working with high-profile subjects. Through a series of his own assignments—covering subjects that range from Presidents to rock stars to your everyday Joe—Harrington will talk you through what it took to get the shot. Whether climbing to the crows’ nest of the Golden Gate Bridge or hanging out of a helicopter for air-to-air photography, the core of this presentation will be about learning from experience and knowing what it takes to get the shot. All levels.

So, go, sign up (when registration opens), and tell your friends! While the book, Best Business Practices for Photographers has all manner of detail on the business of photography, there are not photos. This presentation will show you the photos, the behind-the-scenes images, and other details about how the assignment ended up!

(Comments, if any, after the Jump)

---

Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.

PLUSnews - Registry to Launch in Fall

We're a big fan of the Picture Licensing Universal System coalition, and they sent us this announcement, that is well worth looking into!

PLUS Registry To Launch This Fall

With core funding now in place, the PLUS Coalition is fully engaged in developing the PLUS Registry ─ a global online resource which connects images, rights holders and rights information.

About the PLUS Registry

~Industry-neutral and non-profit.
~Unique identifiers for every rights holder, image and license.
~Global metadata for a global marketplace.
~Secure metadata with access control.
~Dynamic metadata for dynamic rights.
~Robust metadata, at long last.
~A global hub for all registries.
~Much more than rights metadata.
~Powerful forensic search capabilities.
~Connect using any application.

For more information, and the ability to be a beta tester, click here

(Comments, if any, after the Jump)

---

Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.

BP and Media Interference

Anderson Cooper does a great job of hitting hard at BP on their seemingly uncanny ability to override the first amendment to the Constitution.


A follow up to the Anderson Cooper piece, below:

(Another video, after the Jump)

And Paul Melcher has a good take on things here.

---

Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.

It's Not The Tool, It's the Talent

Time and time again, I get the "hey, what camera is that?" question, as if the camera brand makes my photos better. To the trained eye, you can see some differences, and to be sure, each brand has their feel and features. Yet, all to often, it's not about the tool, it's about the talent. Enter photographer Lee Morris, who did a high end fashion shoot with an iPhone 3Gs.

The iPhone Fashion Shoot - Lee Morris Shoots With The 3GS Fstoppers from FStoppers on Vimeo.

Lee Morris of Fstoppers.com shoots a full fashion session with the iPhone 3gs. You can get more info at www.fstoppers.com/iphone.

Gizmodo wrote about it here - A Professional Fashion Shoot With an iPhone 3GS - and it's just one more point about the importance of talent.

(Comments, if any, after the Jump)

---

Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.

The Economist - OOOPS!

The good folks over at the Economist seem completely content to alter the reality of an image with some really bad justifications for doing so, as outlined over on the New York Times blog - On The Economist’s Cover, Only a Part of the Picture - and we agree that it's just plain wrong to digitally manipulate this image for the cover, or any other reason, for that matter, in an editorial context, without providing very clear indicators that the photo has been manipulated. Heck, why not just photoshop the President swimming into the oil slick?

Paul Melcher has a few good thoughts on this whole retouching mess, in general, in his post - R is for Retouched.

(Continued after the Jump)

POST JUMP TEXT.

---

Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.

ScottVest - A Cure for Carry-On Limits

As someone who's been met with "you've got to check one of those..." challenges by unknowning TSA personnel, below is one really cool solution to solve this problem:
You can read more about it on Engadget - Scottevest's Carry-On Coat houses all of your portable electronics, stolen hotel shampoo bottles - or check out the ASMP website for information on TSA's allowances for professional photographers, here.

(Comments, if any, after the Jump)

POST JUMP TEXT.

---

Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.

Design By Committee - SHUT IT DOWN NOW

Let creatives be creative! Don't let the non-creatives think in their non-creative minds that they know what the hell they're doing. Here's a video that is a good laugh (and under 5 minutes).

(Comments, if any, after the Jump)

POST JUMP TEXT.

---

Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.