########################################
PhotoAimLite
Key words in this issue: An Independent | Infringement | A Strong Ethic | Digimarc | PicScout | Photo Mechanic | Breeze Browser Pro | File Browser | Photographer's Market | BLM | Permit | Archive | Copyright infringement |Retain Rights | Inspiration | Domain Names | Search Engine | Remote | Sensitive Eye | Theme Publishers | IRA | Free Lunch | Postcard | Photo Edit
Newswords: Child Protection | Photo-Sharing | Mapplethorpe | Nexpress | Digimaster | MIT | Strobe | Aerial | Ideas | Camera | Copyright Ingringement |Unbrella | Mystery Solved | VDP | Humanitarian |
########################################
## PhotoAimLite monthly newsletter for March ## 414
########################################
PhotoAimLite, the weekly newsletter from PhotoSource
International. <http://www.photosource.com> ==>
ISSN 1530-0511
If you no longer wish to receive PhotoAimLite, see the instructions at the end of this newsletter.
########################################
A Safe Haven
A hidden advantage of working as an independent editorial stock photographer: you not only work within a community of photobuyers who match your special interest area, but you're part of an honest and hard-working group of people.
We've all heard about copyright infringement on the Internet. Commercial art directors who pilfer images at will; designers who "borrow" images for tests. Consumers who steal web images indiscriminately. Photo theft.
But you never hear of an individual professional photobuyer at a reputable magazine or book publishing house, involved in a copyright infringement case. Photo theft.
Since our business is the business of editorial stock photography, we each work with a select and limited number of buyers who match our specialized photo collection. We are on a first name basis with our buyers. Many editorial photographers phone their clients "collect" from distant countries.
There's no advantage for us to stray out into the area of commercial enterprise, to deal with ad agencies, corporate businesses and graphic companies where you're more likely to run into instances of "conspiracy."
UNHEARD OF
It would be unheard of for an editor at a publishing house to "steal" an image and not pay for it. Publishing companies operate within a strong ethic. Another plain fact is that there's no monetary incentive for the photobuyer, who is on salary, to inappropriately "filch" a photo. (Photo theft). The consequences of the use of an unpaid photo would embarrass the company and could result in loss of a job for the editor.
Next time a fellow photographer complains about the theft of one of his/her photos, you can be sure you are talking to a photographer who deals outside the fraternity of photobuyers at book and magazine publishers.
However, thievery in the commercial stock photo industry cannot be denied. In our digital age, attorneys and software companies will someday begin to benefit when programs such as Digimarc, PicScout, and others balance the photo theft. But has thievery in the real world ever been eradicated? My advice, stay within your safe haven of editorial photobuyers.
Rohn Engh is director of PhotoSource International and publisher of PhotoStockNotes. Pine Lake Farm, 1910 35th Road, Osceola, WI 54020 USA. E-mail: info@photosource.com . Fax: 1 715 248 7394. Web site: www.photosource.com .
The Memory Card: "Finding Keepers"
by David Arnold & Gail Rutman
When we first went digital we were delighted with Photoshop's one-stop workflow. We could do everything with a single program: rename and renumber files; view thumbnails and examine larger images; flag the keepers; embed copyright information, captions, and keywords; optimize the keepers; and catalog the finished photos. But our DSLRs were giving us many more potential keepers than our film cameras ever did, and our Photoshop-only system felt more like workslow than workflow. We resisted the temptation to borrow the strategy David's 94-year-old aunt recommends for moving: separate all your possessions into three piles-"keep," "dump," and "not sure"-and then throw out all three. Instead of using a Jack-of-all-trades-master-of-one solution-Photoshop is the ultimate image processing program, and Photoshop Elements a good lower-cost alternative-consider adopting a set of more focused tools.
Last month we discussed software that can simplify and accelerate transferring your photos from memory card to camera. But the major time-eater is the next stage, separating the keepers from the clunkers. Photoshop's built-in File Browser can accomplish this task, but the process is slow, tedious, and uncertain. The best alternatives are Photo Mechanic (www.camerabits.com, Win and Mac; $150) and BreezeBrowser Pro (http://www.breezesys.com, Windows only; $59.95, or packaged with Downloader Pro [regularly $29.95] for $64.90). Both Photo Mechanic and BreezeBrowser Pro generate thumbnails in a fraction of the time File Browser requires, and not only let you examine images at 100 percent (essential for judging sharpness), but also compare them side-by-side at any size you wish, zooming and panning them simultaneously. Designed for speed, either program will let you accomplish most tasks with a single keystroke, a great time-saver over the usual menu-and-drop-down-list or multiple keystroke approaches. You can zoom to 100 percent in Photoshop, but not as easily, and to compare two images at that size requires opening each image, zooming each to 100 percent, dragging their borders off so they'll fit on your screen without overlapping, and then scrolling each image to display the part you want to compare. Overall, Photo Mechanic or BreezeBrowser Pro can cut the time you spend separating the saleable from the deleteable by at least 50 percent.
Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/mcard12.html
GOOD STUFF
CAMERA RAW, With Adobe Photoshop CS, by Bruce Fraser. With your digital camera's raw format and the new Camera Raw plug-in in Adobe Photoshop CS, you gain precise control over image qualities such as white balance, tone curve, color space, contrast, and saturation. With an easy, engaging style, this definitive guide takes you through Photoshop's Camera Raw controls and File Browser, offers expert techniques for building a workflow and automating tasks, and provides in-depth coverage of raw-capture metadata. ($34.99; ISBN: 0-321-27878-X) Contact: Peachpit Press, 1249 Eighth St, Berkeley CA 94710. Phone: 1 800 283-9444. Fax: 1 510 524-2221.
2005 PHOTOGRAPHER'S MARKET. This year's edition includes 2,000 updated listings of markets that provide contact information, guidelines, formats, and pay rates. Read about the latest developments in the stock photography market and get detailed digital submission guidelines in the updated "Submitting Your Work" section. (ISBN: 1-58297-277-X; $24.99) Contact: Writer's Digest Books, an imprint of F & W Publications, Inc., 4700 E Galbraith Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45236. Phone: 1 513 531-2690. E-mail: sberger@fwpubs.com. http://www.photosourcefolio.com/bookstoreone.htm#158297277X
CREATING A WEB PAGE IN DREAMWEAVER, by Nolan Hester. If you want to make a webpage fast but don't want to get bogged down in the details, use this Visual QuickProject Guide. (ISBN: 0-321-27843-7; $12.99) Contact: Peachpit Press, 1249 Eighth St, Berkeley CA 94710. Phone: 1 800 283-9444. Fax: 1 510 524-2221. E-mail: ask@peachpit.com . http://www.photosourcefolio.com/bookstoreone.htm#0321278437
Whose Land Is It?
They are trying to propose new regulations again for nature photographers. The National Arboretum in Washington D.C. has proposed a fee and set of regulations for photography at its facility. If the proposal passes it could have a domino effect with other government agencies, starting with the Department of Agriculture.
In the summer of 2000, we reported in PhotoStockNOTES regards PUBLIC LAW 106-206 of the 106th Congress: the Feds eventually realized they shouldn't restrict bona fide stock photographers who do not traipse through government land with television apparatus and dangling electrical equipment. They modified their proposal back then. Let's hope the Feds (BLM) come to their senses again*
The Arboretum's proposed regulation is in opposition to the congressionally-
enacted law which states that professional and amateur photographers do NOT need a permit and do NOT need to pay a fee to take still photographs, unless the still photography will: use models, sets or props that are not part of the site's natural or cultural resources or administrative facilities; take place where members of the public are generally not allowed; or take place at a location where additional administrative costs are likely.
The proposal can be seen at: http://tinyurl.com/4hhtz section 23,
* The person to whom to voice your opinion:
Thomas S. Elias, Director, US National Arboretum, Beltsville Area Agricultural Research Service, 3501 New York Avenue NE, Washington, DC 20002
Advance Notes: In a recent issue of PhotoStockNotes, we mentioned the noted photographer of the 60's, Flip Schulke, who focused a great deal of his camera work on Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Value of Your Photo Archives
By Art Shay
I agree with Flip Schulke's remarks in an earlier PhotoStockNOTES article: "Save all your outtakes -you never know when they will become important and therefore marketable from an historical point of view."
It has also been my motto over 50 years of documentary photography.
Example: I did a roll or two on Ray Kroc for Time in 1967. I brought Kroc and his honchos to the very first McDonald's-- in the Chicago area as it happened. Having worked with most of Life Magazine's great photographers when I started as a reporter, I knew the elements of an "opening" picture-- so I stood Kroc in front of the very first McDonald's sign and had him eating a hamburger with gusto (a great sauce). This picture, thanks to TIME Magazine's wonderful filing and retrieval system, brings in about $200 every three months-- from Brazil, Europe, TV, Movies, etc. The shot was a full page last year in a Time Inc. promo on the business giants of the last half-century.
This should be a caution to all photographers reading this to always retain rights to your pictures whenever possible. Or if you are a freelancer for a major magazine, make arrangements with them that the copyright of your images will revert to you after a certain amount of time.
God bless Time Inc. for their constant sales of ancient pictures of mine and other freelancers and staff members. Flip Schulke, who you mentioned in a recent article, is right: Many photos from "the historical file" bring in more dough now than they did when they were originally taken.
So take all this as an approbation to you of Flip's neat quotes, to you from a photographer of the generation just before Flip's. I'll be 83 in March, and have a theatrical production featuring 300 slides coming up. My last play, about my adventures as a lead navigator in WW2, was a hit here in Chicago in 2003. "Where Have You Gone, Jimmy Stewart?" (The actor-flier was my commanding officer.)
I am not an orderly person, as Flip seemed to be, but I keep my "good" negatives where I can find them. For example, photos of my old literary friends, Nelson Algren, Simone de Beauvoir and Saul Bellow, have been selling briskly. The current January-February 2005 issue of B&W Magazine uses some of these shots in their 14 pages on me-- more space than they've ever accorded a photographer. The February 2005 issue of Popular Photography-China. They are doing a big story on my industrial work for Fortune, Ford, 3 M, Motorola etc. Old and ancient pictures all!
Do I do digital? Yes, now. North Shore Magazine just printed my first digital full-page -- a close-up of a whistle-blowing doctor blowing a whistle. My two photographer sons have been monitoring my switch to the D-70...and in a few months adding the Epson RD-1, which will give me a rangefinder camera to help build the bridge from my Leicas.
Having done more than 1000 magazine and book covers, 100 annual reports, and having around 25,000 published pictures before my recent digital full page, fellow photographers ask me my opinion on digital. I can answer the most common question I get in this way: The digital SLR is great. With it, at less than 20 feet, you can always get a picture. With my Leicas or Hexars -- I can get THE picture. A slight difference- but to me a subjectively important one.
Art Shay artshay@mac.com is a freelance photographer out of Chicago.
PhotoAimLite
To make sure you receive our e-mails, please add photoaim@photosource.com to your address book--so your filter will know our e-mails are legitimate.
Falling in Love with your Photography
Want your photography to survive? Here at PhotoSource International we have observed photographers and their business operations for 25 years. Many survive. But many more fail. Of those that fail, the most common flaw was their refusal to pay attention to the business aspect of their photography. In other words - they went out of business, not because they were not good photographers, but because they were not good business people.
Being a good photographer cannot be learned - either you have it or you don't. (And if you have it, you still have to develop it!) But, being a good businessperson can be learned.
"But I don't like all that drudgery associated with business," you might say.
Yes, it's true, there is meticulous record keeping involved, and routine tasks. Diary keeping. Forms to fill out. "Ugh!" you say - and you are correct.
But look at it this way: Are you in love with your photography? If you are, then the inconveniences associated with publishing your photography should pale against your rewards.
ENJOY!
History shows that anyone can succeed if they're willing to put up with the inconveniences (and "the lean years") associated with their endeavor. Actors often talk, write, and sing about their years of struggle. While it was happening, they say, it wasn't pleasant. But if they survived, and went on to fame - they often will comment that those years -were the best years. Can you draw a parallel to your own efforts? If it's any consolation, you might be passing through "the best years" right now. Enjoy every moment!
The inventor Thomas Edison didn't "discover" the electric light bulb. He simply put up with the drudgery of testing more than 7,000 different ways to make it work. He was in love with what he was doing. When someone asked him, "Isn't it boring - going through all those tests?" he replied, "On the contrary, it's exhilarating. Now I know 7,000 ways it cannot be done."
INSPIRATION VS. PERSPIRATION
We tend to call someone a genius if they succeed far beyond their colleagues. But Edison's famous reply was, "Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration."
Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/clmn75.html
A PHOTOSOURCE INTERNATIONAL SPONSORED TAX GUIDE
Want to save money on taxes? Want to learn about new deductions and how to take them? Want to learn how you can make sure you don't overpay the IRS? Want to learn all this from an experienced, trusted expert in the field? Order Julian Block's 2005 Tax Tips for Stock Photographers.
This tax guide is useful even for those using tax professionals to do their taxes. Few tax professionals have the kind of specialized knowledge (intellectual properties) that tax guides like this one gives you.
Buy this guide, give it to your tax professional/CPA/accountant and watch your tax
savings grow!
Julian Block has been singled out by the New York Times as a "leading tax professional" and Wall Street Journal calls him "an accomplished writer on taxes". He has published many books and often contributes to magazines such as Consumer Reports, Money, Parade, and Reader's Digest. Now in co-operation with PhotoSource International he has launched this guide tailored for stock photographers - both professionals and hobbyists - that is sure to save you much more than the cost of this 39-page guide.
Only for
$19.95!
Don't miss out, order your copy today! To order please follow this link http://www.photosource.com/taxtips.php
On-Line
Domain Names from Google?
That's right. The mighty search engine Google is now an official provider of domain names. How soon they will start to offer domain registrations is not known at this time, nor how they will structure their pricing. Domain names are pretty cheap these days from such registrars as 1&1 (www.1and1.com) and Go Daddy (www.godaddy.com), and Google could follow suit. ICAAN has approved Google to offer the following top-level domain names: .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, .name, and .pro. If you'd like to see the complete list of all the companies ICANN has authorized and which domain names each may offer, visit http://www.icann.org/registrars/accredited-list.html.
MSN Search
And while we're talking about Internet search engines, MSN has now taken the beta wrapper off its search engine. Their new search engine was developed from the ground up, rather than relying on others' search technology, and uses proprietary methods. You can easily access it from the main MSN page (www.msn.com). Give it a try and see how you like it.
Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/onlin154.html
POSITION YOURSELF
The automatic controls on cameras today make the technical side of photography much easier than a generation ago. As a result, the person with a sensitive eye finds that she or he is amassing a healthy collection of "quite good" images.
"How can I get my pictures published?" is usually the next question. And rightly so, because you've seen pictures published that were not even quite as good as yours.
Award-winning pictures may earn you blue ribbons, but if you're interested in seeing your credit line in national circulation and receiving checks in the mail, here are some tips on how to shift your emphasis.
For the purposes of marketing, the real judges of what makes a good photo are the editors at magazine or book publishing houses, who buy photos not because they like them, but because they need them.
I've been in many an editor's office where stunning calendar-type pictures are on the wall, but the editor is signing a check for a work-a-day nuts-and-bolts picture he or she needs for their current project.
Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/clmn108.html
TAX TIPS
Investment Losses
by Julian Block, Esq.
I want to share an e-mail from a reader I'll call Victor, someone who has suffered substantial unrealized losses from investments in individual shares of stocks and mutual funds. No Nostradamus he, Victor opted to move a good portion of his available funds into several sizzling stocks in March of 2000, fairly close to when market indexes were at their all-time peaks.
All of his picks plummeted in value within a few days after he bought them, eventually by more than a disheartening 70 percent, and have since recovered only slightly. Victor is considering unloading the stocks and wants to know the tax consequences in the event he does decide to realize his paper losses.
Welcome to the club, Victor. You have lots of company, as attested by the e-mails I receive.
What might provide some consolation is the opportunity to indulge yourself in a soupcon of schadenfreude, which my Webster's Dictionary defines as enjoyment obtained from others' troubles. After all, your unrealized losses of more than two-thirds are still significantly less than the complete losses experienced by investors who perceived themselves as masters of market timing and spent big bucks for shares of dot-com ventures that subsequently went bust.
Department of full disclosure: Around the same time as Victor, I was inspired to move a portion of my retirement-plan money out of an IRA with a mutual fund that then seemed insufficiently go-go and into an IRA with a fund that emphasized high-tech companies, a maneuver that predictably prompted my wife to interminably remind me that her favorite play is "Lysistrata," as well as to dwell in detail on why a prolonged regimen of cold showers is a more-than-acceptable substitute for a particular pleasure of the flesh.
Fortunately, the Internal Revenue Code authorizes limited relief for Victor and others with losses from sales of individual shares of now-defunct high-techs or from sales of shares of mutual funds that moved their investors' dollars into those companies. However, no relief is available for folks like me with losses from sales of stocks or fund shares kept in IRAs, 401(k)s, and other kinds of tax-deferred retirement plans.
Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/txtct103.html
POSTCARD TOOLBOX
Features full color on both sides.
Self Promotion-Portfolio Collection - Website Promotion
Contact modern postcard at 1 800 959-8365 x 2311. Web: http://www.modernpostcard.com
########################################
This week's featured photographer on PhotoSourceFolio: Barry Greff
(http://www.photosourcefolio.com)
########################################
PhotoAimLite
To make sure you receive our e-mails, please add photoaim@photosource.com to your address book--so your filter will know our e-mails are legitimate.
PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE NEWS
````````````````````````````````````````````
Note: If the URL is long, it may extend to two lines. In that case - clicking on it won't work. Instead, "copy and paste" the URL.
School festival pics ban for press photographer - Coverage of a major music
festival by The Westmorland Gazette was damaged when organisers denied a
photographer access to the event because of CHILD PROTECTION issues.
http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/photo/2005/03mar/050314ban.shtml
Online PHOTO-SHARING sites and picture blogs allow amateur shutterbugs
to share their passions with the world
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7160855/site/newsweek/
The Larry Clark show brings back memories of the aborted Robert MAPPLETHORPE retrospective at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington in 1989 and the uproar over the "Sensation" show at the Brooklyn Museum.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/12/arts/design/12icp.html?th
Kodak Driving Productivity and Growth in Digital Book Publishing Industry
with NEXPRESS and DIGIMASTER Systems - According to Frank Romano, Professor
Emeritus at Rochester Institute of Technology and a leading publishing
industry expert, digitally printed books will represent one-third of all
books printed within five years.
http://www.creativepro.com/story/news/22640.html
He captured the moments. MIT honors are richly deserved for 'Doc' Edgerton, who changed photography with STROBE light.
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg=608&u_sid=1358195
Up Where He Belongs. Retrospective showcases AERIAL photography pioneer
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/03/13/CMGGTB4L5O1.DTL
Adobe To Host The IDEAS Conference For Today's Generation of Creative
Professionals
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050314/145383_1.html
Photography, a different kind of shooting - If a CAMERA is not part of your
outdoor gear, it should be.
http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2005/03/13/sports/outdoors/7c4d29e68124c28a86256fc2008040e4.txt
Former photographer won many awards during career - Bob Phillips could come
up with a gadget to solve just about any problem. He created tools to
improve the way photos were developed at the time, and an UNBRELLA that
could be strapped onto his body so he wouldn't get wet during outdoor
assignments. http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/19988.html
Photo in the News: Meteor Crater MYSTERY SOLVED
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/03/0310_050310_meteorcrater.html
Catalogers Have Mixed Feeling on VDP - In Summer 2004, 8% of CATALOG
publishing companies cited "customization with variable-data printing" as a
business challenge, down from 11% a year earlier, and 3 percentage points
higher than publishers on average.
http://www.trendwatchgraphicarts.com/fastfacts/fast273.html
Photographer Butcher a cut above the rest - Butcher received International
College's 2005 HUMANITARIAN of the Year Award
http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050312/NEWS01/503120488/1075
Industry Analysis: It's a Wireless World - In the last 10 years, our
communication modes have been swept by change time and again. As creative
professionals, we need to adapt and even embrace these changes.
http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/22634.html
########################################
PhotoAimLite is a collection of excerpts from our weekly newsletter, PhotoStockNotes, available through the web anywhere in the world $14.99 per year. http://www.photosource.com/psnintro.html
Feel free to forward this issue of PhotoAimLite to your photographer friends.
########################################
To cancel your subscription, send email to:
orders@photoaim.com
with "PhotoAimLite UNSUBSCRIBE" as the subject line.
########################################
PhotoAimLite weekly newsletter is a product of PhotoSource International, Rohn Engh, Director, who is solely responsible for its contents. Photo Edit !
To sign up for our newsletter:
http://www.photoaim.com/order.html
For information about PhotoSource International:
http://www.photosource.com/services.html
########################################
414
Next Month: The Photographer Survey