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Key words in this issue: Digital | Copyright | Vintage | Taxes |

NEWSWORDS: Corbis Changes | Photoimage | Copyright Bully |

Youth Photos | Theft | Sailing | Panama | Pixels |

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## PhotoAIM weekly newsletter for 08/16/03 ## 395C

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PhotoAIM, the weekly newsletter from PhotoSource

ISSN 1530-0511

If you no longer wish to receive PhotoAIM, see the instructions at the end of this newsletter.

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The Uncounted Costs of

"Going Digital"

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By: Brent T. Madison

Itching to take the digital plunge? You've read all the reviews, have studied the differences between the various cameras in your price range, and are working on strategies for getting your spouse to "okay " a big purchase on the credit card. . .

Sound familiar? There's nothing wrong with dangling your toes in the digital bathwater, but make sure you've considered all of the costs before diving in. These expenses can be substantial and are certainly unmentioned in the flashy camera ads you’ve been poring over.

First there are the obvious things you'll need to consider, besides the camera, before becoming "digi-able." Are you already equipped with the right lenses and/or adapters to fit your new purchase? If you are buying an SLR-type camera, be certain that your current stock of lenses is compatible with the computer chips running the camera. If the lenses are built-in to the camera, will you have to buy wide angle or telephoto attachments to get the range you want? Some digital cameras need the newest TTL-flashes to work. Have those costs been factored in? What will you need to buy so that your new digital set-up will match - or even better – expand - your capabilities in photography?

RAIN ON THE PARADE

Recently, my brother e-mailed me to say he had chosen an SLR-type camera and was ready to max out his credit card. In his excitement, he shared that as he enjoys manual focus, and knowing his old lenses wouldn't support autofocus, he didn't mind not having the AF option on his new camera. Sorry to rain on his parade, I told him that with his current stock of lenses, the camera would not display an F-stop reading. Furthermore, camera-assisted Program, Aperture and Shutter-priority modes would not work. His options were to buy a new set of AF-lenses with computer chips or use his new camera only in manual mode without a meter - two things he had not considered in his budget planning.

Another consideration in the overall picture is the investment you'll need to make on a computer system that will be not only able to quickly process your digital images but be able to store or archive them, too. If you already have a computer, what upgrades or additions will you need to purchase to enable your computer to handle the workload you are about to give it? Do you have a CD or DVD burner, over 40 GB of hard drive space, the right USB or fire-wire cards? If you are prep-ing images to go to clients, is your monitor and graphics card up-to-snuff? In the end, your current computer's motherboard may not be able to handle certain hardware upgrades, in which case you may need a new computer altogether.

Where software is concerned, what programs will you have to buy and learn? People new to digital photography are often surprised to learn that many digital photographs need "balancing" to make them ready for print. Have you invested in the software you will need, like Qimage or Photoshop? How much time and money are you willing to spend to learn how to use them? Will you have to create an archive system for burning, cataloging and accessing your digital photos? Will a non-computer-based archive system work for your digital images, or will you buy database software to help you manage them?

Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/gen637.html

You May Lose Your Copyright Rights if You Sit on Them

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Let’s say you’ve granted, and been paid for, a license for one of your images to be used in a company’s promotional brochure for one year. Do you have a duty to investigate whether the company is still using your image after the term expires? Subsequently, you learn that the company, in fact, continued using the image beyond the first year. If you then wait several years before bringing a copyright infringement action, will you still be able to prosecute your claim?

As a matter of good business practice, you should try to investigate, in good time, whether your licensees are exceeding the terms of your licenses. This is especially true for businesses who are not accustomed to the licensing industry and who have a tendency to "forget" that copyright licenses, like all good things, must pass. However, as a legal matter, you generally do not have a duty to investigate whether the licensee continued to use the work after the term expired, or otherwise exceeded the scope of the license. Although courts have in some circumstances imposed this duty on licensors, copyright owners as a general matter do not have "a never-ending obligation to discover whether anyone to whom [it] ever supplied [its work] would copy it. The Copyright Act does not recognize such an obligation. " MacLean v. Mercer-Meidinger-Hansen, Inc., 952 F.2d 769, 780 (3d Cir. 1991). This is good news, because it would add a tremendous expense if copyright owners were required to always actively police their licensees for unpermitted uses.

However, once a copyright owner learns of an infringement, it is important to act quickly. If you do not, you will likely be "estopped" or prevented from bringing a claim, pursuant to the doctrine of "laches." The key question is whether you continued to permit the infringement even after you had knowledge of the unlawful use. In the case of Silva v. MacLaine, 697 F. Supp. 1423 (E.D. Mich 1988), for example, the plaintiff was estopped from bringing a copyright infringement claim involving plaintiff’s copyrighted material allegedly used in defendant’s book. Because plaintiff reviewed defendant’s manuscript in 1981, received an autographed copy of the book in 1983, and was later informed of a television series made from the book – and never objected – the court found that plaintiff was estopped from bringing a claim. If the defendant incurs great expense in producing, printing or distributing the copyrighted material, it will be even harder to stop a use after having knowledge of the infringement.

As a matter of good business practice, you should make sure your licensees do not exceed the scope of their licenses. As matter of good legal practice, however, you must act on an infringement as soon as you learn about it.

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This week's featured photographer on PhotoSourceFolio: Mark Dixon:

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Digital Cameras Take the Lead

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Will sales of digital cameras surpass film cameras soon? According to InfoTrends Research Group, digital camera sales in North America are expected to win the battle sometime this year.

And what's a new digital camera going to cost? It depends on your area of interest: social issues, sports, nature, etc.

One advantage to editorial stock photographers is that many of your pictures are going to be used 1/4 page or smaller which means you could get by with $800+ (4 to 5 Megapixels). Of course if you expect to publish covers, your camera will cost $1500+ (6 and up Megapixels). If you plan to use it for commercial work, then expect to pay $8,000 and more (lens, back, etc.)

If you can get by with an advanced point and shoot type model (Olympus C5050 for instance), the dent in your checkbook will not be as big as if you needed the Canon 10D, 1Ds, Fuji S2, or Nikon 1DX.

As always with equipment purchases, make sure the camera you are interested in fits you, your hands and your way of working. It doesn't matter how many bells and whistles a camera has if you can't easily reach and use the controls.

TRAVEL NOTES

Vintage Memories - Now!

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I recently had a travel writer colleague ask me about some 35mm slides she found after her mother passed away. They were taken in Italy and France in the 1970s so she thought it best to trash them. I was amazed and told her not to trash them but to look through them carefully as some of them could well be saleable images with a little help from Photoshop. They would have a 'vintage' or 'nostalgia' tag maybe, but they could be money-spinners as well, precisely because of this.

A week later I checked my www.alamy.com account and to my great satisfaction

I had sold a picture I took in 1965 (thirty-eight years ago) of a gondolier in Venice. This was one of a number of photos I had found in a box that I have managed to hold onto through the ups and downs of life since. On a dull winter's day I had selected and scanned some of the best, taken when I had no idea of ever selling them, and virtually before computers were available. Now I have made a $420 sale of just one image, not bad for sorting through an old box of forgotten slides.

So if you are not traveling for any reason, have a look through what you shot, or your parents or grandparents shot, many years ago. Use your knowledge of what makes a picture saleable and select those that might just be. After scanning, just clean them up and reconstitute the colors to what might have been there at the time of taking, or if in B&W, make the contrast work for today.

When burnt to CD these old pictures might well be money-spinners for you, not a fortune, but better than sitting in a cupboard doing nothing.

Happy Shooting!

PHOTOS DON'T LIE.

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Yes, they do; well, nowadays anyway. Especially if you're a Hollywood star or a well-paid model. Magazine covers, not inside editorial content, sell magazines. Magazine circulation directors have long known this, as far back as the airbrush days. Today, of course, the results of digital imagery delight the publicists of Madison Avenue, and Hollywood clients who are cosmetically challenged. Legs and hips can be made thinner, baby blue eyes made bluer, and of course, frown lines, and bags under the eyes, made to disappear. But digital altering makes airbrushing look like child's play. A recent couple examples: On Redbook's July cover, Julia Roberts' head comes from a paparazzi shot taken at the 2002 People's Choice awards. Her body, meanwhile, is from a photo at the Notting Hill movie premiere four years ago. Seventeen's May issue featured Sarah Michelle Gellar, who granted the magazine an interview but not a photo shoot. So the magazine purchased a photo from a stock photo agency, retouched it and changed Gellar's shirt color from black to purple. -RE

WORKSHOP

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TAXES

For Tax Purposes . . .

How Do I Declare My Stock Photo Inventory?

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A reader inquired:

Q. I’m told that if you have inventory in your business you have to use the accrual method. How do you value your stock inventory? By what you hope to make by selling each photo? By how much it cost you to get the photo? I’d appreciate any input you can give. Thanks.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

A. We checked with our tax columnist, Julian Block. He advises that as a stock photographer, since you are not manufacturing anything, declaring inventory is not necessary in your stock photo business. You are "renting" your photos, not physically selling them. You deduct expenses on the production of your stock file as you spend the money (cash basis). This includes the usual expenses such as film, postage, cameras, computer-related costs, a percentage of your business meals, location costs, models, lodging, telephone, travel, and so forth.

It's not necessary to work on an accrual basis. Most stock photographers work on a cash basis, unless for some reason they prefer an accrual basis. If you plan to switch to an accrual basis, you'll have to contact the IRS to get permission to change to that way of recording profit and loss in your business operations. -RE

SHOOTERS

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The LA Times published three Wisconsin images ("Fish Boil," Door County) by Arizona photographer Don Tibbits , dast@dastcom.com

GOODSTUFF

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EPSON COMPLETE GUIDE TO DIGITAL PRINTING, by Rob Sheppard. Create sparkling digital photographs of professional quality using all kinds of ink jet printers. Follow an expert’s advice on: deciding which printer is right for you, based on features, performance, and price; choosing standard and specialty papers; image-processing programs and how they can be used to refine your photos for printing; finishing touches that can turn a good print into a great one; expanding your creative horizons by working in black-and-white; and creating panoramic images. ($24.95; ISBN: 1-57990-427-0; 160 pages, all color) Contact: Chris Vaccari Lark Books, 50 College St, Asheville NC 28801.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

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Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to

reform.

Mark Twain

FREE THIS WEEK

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THIS WEEK'S WEB FEATURE

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Watch for developments in the field of stock photography in PhotoAIM's

PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE NEWS

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Corbis Shakes Up Editorial Division - Brian Storm has made his first major

management change at Corbis since taking over as vp for news and editorial

roughly one year ago.

http://www.pdn-pix.com/news/#2

Gateway to Enter Camera Market - Gateway currently plans to deliver three

still-image cameras, with resolutions up to 5.25 megapixels, according to

officials.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/zd/20030812/tc_zd/46282

HP Unveils Cavalcade of Consumer Products - Tech giant's 158 new devices

emphasize photography, from cameras to printers and paper, plus a peek at

what's next.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/pcworld/20030812/tc_pcworld/1

11961

AP Reassigns Vin Alabiso - The Associated Press (AP) has announced that

former executive photo editor Vincent Alabiso, a vice president, has been

appointed director of global business development/photos. In his new

capacity, Alabiso will oversee the marketing, sales and promotion of AP's

current and historic images. http://www.pdn-pix.com/news/#1

Call For Entries: PHOTOIMAGE 03 - Photographers living in Pennsylvania, New

Jersey, New York, Delaware and Maryland are invited to enter PHOTOIMAGE 03,

the latest installment of the annual contest presented by Philadelphia's

Center for the Photographic Image (CPI) and City Paper. The deadline for

submissions is Friday, October 10. http://www.pdn-pix.com/news/#8

Camera Van Brakes for Close-Ups - When Shaun Irving goes on vacation he

doesn't have to worry about forgetting his camera -- he'll be driving it.

Irving has built what he believes to be the world's larrgest traveling

camera on gas-powered wheels. It's certainly the only camera that gets 15

miles per gallon. http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,59929,00.html

Congress, the new copyright bully - Congress has become exasperated with its

inability to get Americans to stop engaging in copyright infringement.

http://news.com.com/2010-1071-5060347.html

Winners of National Youth Photography Competition Attend Pro Surfing Tour of

America - Ranging in age from eight to 18, these young people are the

winners of the ImageMakers National Photography competition.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030808/atf001_1.html

Getty Spotlights Photographer Who Defined Victorian Portraiture - Julia

Margaret Cameron (1815-1879) is noted not only as one of the few female

photographers of the Victorian age, but also as a bold innovator and

entrepreneur who tirelessly campaigned to raise the new science of

photography to a higher realm.

http://news.amn.org/press.jsp?id=1756

Photographer charged with theft of innovative device for split images

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-ptheft12aug12,1,1373105

.story?coll=sfla-news-palm

Photographer's work helps society rejoice in pregnant bodies - There are at

least nine others also photographing pregnant women in Seattle alone,

according to listings on babyzone.com. Loomis has gone from four clients a

month to as many as 12 a week, here and in San Francisco, especially during

the annual summer baby boom.

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/6514546.htm

Introducing America's Cup photographer, Jon Nash - Based in England, Nash

has focused on capturing great sailing images and other outdoor pursuits for

the past 16 years. His portfolio boasts work from three Around alone races,

two Whitbreads, and the most recent Volvo Ocean Race

http://www.cupviews.com/Database/LiveArticle.asp?ArtID=-2117732770

Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/pitn.html

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FREE. Find out free products for stock photographers by typing in 'Free' in the Search section of PhotoStockNotes.

Feel free to forward this issue of PhotoAIM to your photographer friends.

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Got a question about legal issues for photographers? Type in the name of our legal expert, Joel Hecker, in the Search section of PhotoStockNotes. Taxes !

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