Tiffinbox

Free Digital Prints (With A Catch, Or Two)

Want quick and (sometimes) dirty digital prints? For free? Now, I got your attention, huh?

I stumbled across this site that lists all the different places where you can drop your files and receive free prints. The catch of course is you have to set up accounts in each one of them. Nothing is for really free is it? But would you do it for 365 free prints? I bet you would. Then I came upon PhotoFun. A 4"x6" is a whopping 5 cents.

Well, there is another catch. Using these consumer level print houses for my clients would be a no-no for me. Why? Well, for one, I am not sure I will be able to match my monitor to each of their color profiles. It would be a very tedious exercise indeed. For now, and for my business, I will be using the two or three choice custom labs whose print quality and customer service is simply outstanding. For the snap shots that we inevitably create at home, the links above should suffice.

Captivated By The Light

PhotoVision: Education & Solution for Photographers. I receive the quarterly CDs and there are some real gems in there. I believe if you join the PPA, you get them for a steep discount.

The man behind PhotoVision is taking the country by storm, visiting 68 cities. Ed Pierce is coming to Hartford and I'll be going to see him. He will be discusing lighting, workflow and marketing. Again, with the PPA discount, I believe his evening seminar called Captivated By The Light is down to $19. Not bad at all.

Best Business Practices For Photographers

If you are a photographer, a serious one and in business, don't walk but run to buy John Harrington's book Best Business Practices for Photographers. I just got it in the mail yesterday and am devouring it.

Also check out Harrington's blog, Photo Business News & Forum. Bookmark it fellow photographers!

An Offer Macintosh Enthusiasts Can't Refuse

It's the holiday season and hey I am all about giving ya'll freebies whenever I can. So here is one for the Macintosh maven among you.

I have TWO free subscription offers to Macworld to give away by December 31st.

Email me at tiffinbox [at] pipalproductions [dot] com with your name, address and telephone number. You better be legit because I will call you before I commit your subscriptions.

The second and sixth email wins (2 and 6, get it?)

For The Love Of Labor

Amit at India Uncut says “My rule of thumb while doing freelance stuff for Indian publications: don't write for money; too much of a headache chasing it.” Very true Amit.

The same can be said about photographing for any Indian publication. They will want the work right away but pay you when they see fit, which if my experiences mean anything is either when you become a pain in the ass to them or they choose to designate you as a non-entity and want you to disappear.

Given that I will never shoot for either Outlook magazine or India Abroad ever again, I am taking the bold step and mentioning both publications here. Freelancers beware.

The solution isn't working for free [unless you are independently wealthy or a trust-fund baby] but sticking to your guns BEFORE you commit to the assignment. The way to do that is through a contract signed by both parties. Yes, that's cumbersome and yes, given that the offending publications are ensconced in India, where these sort of contractual laws fall by the way side, this may all seem moot. But you have gotta start somewhere.

In the contract, insist on a retainer [don't call it an advance] to cover all your immediate expenses. Payment should be made due upon delivery of said product, be it a paragraph or a photograph. You will likely hear a song and dance about how accounting won't release the funds until the article is published. This is merely a dog and pony show. If they did not have the funds to pay you, they are unlikely to have the funds to go to print but of course they will go to print because they have the funds. Again, stick to your guns. If you are a photographer, I suggest sending in low-resolution images with the caveat that high resolution versions will be emailed to them the second their payment is received in your bank account. Yes, they are all capable of wiring you money.

All this talk of a contracts and deadlines will make you highly unpopular and will likely get you blackballed. I haven't heard from several publications in months [you know who you are] because I got sick of their tactics and put the screws on their accounting departments. In my opinion, it's really their loss.

If their management insists on paying freelancers peanuts to begin with and then adding insult to injury, paying for the assignment only months later, they are undeniably only getting desperate freelancers who are willing to scrape the barrel or, as I have said before, are cash cows who could care less about being stiffed. The publications are also unlikely to sustain, over the long term, a pool of truly professional photographers or writers dedicated to their craft. In the end, professionals loose out and so do the publications as the quality of their output goes down the drain.

It's a very different world out there. While the Indian economy seems to be competing very well in the global marketplace, the publishing/journalism industry seems to be entrenched in archaic and decrepit ways of doing business. I see the capacity of India Today to not merely compete against Outlook magazine but indeed go head to head with Time, Newsweek or Spiegel.

It's time for Indian publications to wake up and smell the chai.

UPDATE: I came across this related post on ArZan's blog.

Adobe Photographers Directory Launched

Adobe is teaming up with the American Society of Media Photographers to develop a comprehensive directory of photographers, first across the US and eventually across the globe. Of course, you have to become a member of the ASMP.

"The Adobe Photographers Directory will be searchable by geographic location and by photographic specialty, and it will include portfolio images. Thus, designers can quickly zero in on the best candidates for the job. And because the photographers’ experience and competence are evidenced by their membership in ASMP, designers can feel confident in the professionalism of any one they hire."

Is Adobe expecting a 50-50 split on the $300 general membership dues and the $50 Find A Photographer fee ASMP will collect?

Obit: Naresh Patel, COLORAMA

Naresh Patel who founded Colorama, a chain of film processing centers in the United Kingdom has died. Much like Baldev Duggal in New York City, Patel revolutionized the speed in which one could get film processed in the UK. One could even say Nareshbhai was a pioneer, often shiftin with the trends in the photo business.

Newsroom Chatter

I just signed on to become a member of the VisualEditors.com online forum. It's an oasis of information. If you are involved in anything visual for a news publication, here is where you can iron out your thoughts, vent or otherwise discuss among peers, role models and mentors the ideas behind presenting your work or the work of others in the most elegant and useful manner.

"VizEds publishes industry news, coordinates education, reporting and training resources and enables interaction with journalists from around the world."

This is the brainchild of Robert Motgomery, the news design editor at the Chicago Sun-Times and adjunct professor at the Medill Graduate School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

CommonCents

Makes great sense to read CommonCents.

PhotoPlussed, Part I

If there is one thing that best encapsulates my experience at this year's PhotoPlus Expo it is: Veni Vidi Vinci. (We Came, We Saw, We Conquered).

I arrived at the Jacob Javits Center at about 9 a.m. and promptly received my press pass. I rushed to the first session. Andrew Rodney, aka. DigitalDog, had begun his seminar on color management. I found a seat to the side of the room, one of the only ones open. His use of simple language to explain the most complex of steps to produce rich, honest color out of our printers was greatly appreciated. The room was packed with people. Let me say this much, if you are ever befuddled about setting up your machine to produce accurate color and you have an opportunity to hear him speak, I urge you to go.

If you are a professional, not knowing how to calibrate your monitor or use those printer profiles will cost you dearly in time, money and eventually clients.

I skipped the first afternoon session and decided to go onto the Expo floor. As expected, it was elbow-to-elbow room only. Canon, Nikon and even Fuji (thanks to their new flagship DSLR, the S3 Pro) were all crowded beyond belief. To top that off, some camera companies had lines stretching beyond their own booths for those of us who wanted to pick up a signed poster or two. It made navigating from one end of the large hall to the other very difficult.

I slid into the third session; Joe McNally's workshop on location lighting. Not quite what I expected. Mr. McNally must have been tired. Between self-depracatory quips and anecdotes, he managed to persuade some in the audience that all that is required to light a scene or a subject is a bag full of expensive Nikon Speedlights. I wasn't terribly impressed or convinced by the presentation; though his story on how he bagged an image at the very tip of the Empire State Building for a National Geographic magazine story made the two-hour session bearable. Next time Mr. McNally, please structure your time to make it a real workshop. If I had paid $80 for that session, I know I would have wanted to get my money back.

Later that evening, I attended a special session moderated by the legendary Peter Howe. The session was cynically titled "Is Anyone Out There Listening? The Relevance of Photojournalism Today." The panel consisted of photographers from the VII photo agency; Ron Haviv, Lauren Greenfield, Antonin Kratochvil, James Nachtwey and Christopher Morris. Nachtwey went first because he wanted to get to the Eddie Adams wake that evening.

Nachtwey's slide show made my jaw drop. If you pick up TIME magazine, you will a lot of the images he was showing, but to see them at that size gave them a sense of urgency that one doesn't experience while flipping through a magazine. Wish he could have said more about the images and his work. Lauren Greenfield followed him but I was just way too tired to sit and listen to her. The images she began to show were from her book, "Girl Culture."

As I left the Jacob Javits Center, I ran into James Nachtwey. Initially shy about introducing myself, I took off to the other side of the street as soon as it was safe to cross. Nachtwey remained on one side, presumably waiting for a taxi. I thought about it for about a minute, turned back, crossed the street again and extended my hand out - "Mr. Nachtwey, my name is Seshu Badrinath and I am genuinely honored to meet you," I said. I handed him a card. He quickly stuck it ino his jacket and smirked. He seemed to be in a hurry and I didn't want to seem like I was cramping his style. So, once again I crossed the street and headed North to Barnard College.

Nexus

Via Shawn G. Henry, VP Editorial Photographers

Digital Issues in the Editorial Market, a panel discussion sponsored by The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) and Editorial Photographers (EP) will be held on Friday, October 22, 2004 at Javits Center/PhotoPlus Expo, from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM at Seminar Rms. 1E04 & 05. This is free!

Join an extraordinary panel of photojournalists in a discussion of the impact of digital technology on the editorial market: Barbara Alper, Alan Chin, Shawn G. Henry, and Brad Trent moderated by Peter Howe. The focus of the discussion will center on how to successfully integrate digital capture into a creative and profitable editorial photography business. Topics to be discussed include:

The Transition from Film to Digital
Pricing Digital Production VS Film
Managing the Workflow
Delivering the Job
Satisfying Clients While Maintaining Your Bottom Line

Access, Key To Success?

Getty Images, one of the two power-house photo agencies in the US is facing a barrage of questions from photo editors across the nation about their business dealings conflicting with their editorial decisions. As a wire service, hundreds of newspapers depend on the news feed Getty Images provides. But recently there have been charges that Getty Images which has business relationships with the National Hockey League (NHL) and the National Basketball Association (NBA), has failed to send through their service some poignant and editorially important images.

The most recent controversy sprung from the lack of images from the infamous ice hockey game between the Vancouver Canucks and Colorado Avalanche. Colarado's Steve Moore was sucker punched by Todd Bertuzzi of the Canucks. Moore fell face forward and broke his neck and ended his season. But curiously there were no images of this particular incident on the Getty wire service. Naturally Colorado papers using the service will be miffed.

Is Getty Images censoring their own photographers, on behalf of their business partners – the NHL, the NBA or more recently the Major League Baseball (MLB)? Who looses in the end? Not only do the photographers loose the sale of the image nation or even world-wide, but so does the audience from seeing what happened. While I am open to the idea of promoting businesses, I get antsy when editorial freedom gets curbed in the process. It kills the notion of 'what you see is what you get' and that's plain troubling. It's time to revisit our Ethics 101 books about this.

The Big Squeeze

Freelance photographers at the New York Times are getting hit really where it hurts – their wallets. According to a New York Post article, photographers who work with the New York Times but are not on staff will be required to sign a freelance contract that borders on the ridiculous.

One disgusted photographer said that the new contract "demands that photographers relinquish their copyright, resale opportunities and entire take, without any added compensation."

The American Society of Media Photographers and Editorial Photographers are fighting hard to bring some parity to a moribund dialogue between management and freelancers.

Quite frankly, the Gray Lady is shooting herself in the foot (no pun intended). Lower wages and total control of images (from copyright to resale) means the paper will likely drive good (or even great photographers) out of business and attract low-ballers (those who choose to sell their work rather than license their images for a rate far lower than the competition or the market really demands). Unless the paper is hiring photojournalists, any work submitted to the paper will now be of lesser quality and the veracity and credibility of the images published in the paper, in my opinion, will be suspect. When you have seasoned photographers who have some sense of ethics being effectively fired from their jobs only to be replaced by hacks, well, you know American journalism can expect more troubles ahead.

R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

This was originally posted on the NPPA-L by Paul Guillory, a photojournalist turned Copy editor at The Advocate, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana:

I posted a note here earlier this week encouraging a photographer to defect to the word side as a way of helping teach editors about picture usage. And it set me thinking about an occasionally visited topic on the list: respect.

We often complain that we photographers are not taken seriously in the newsroom. Would you consider for a moment that we create a persona that makes it easy for us not to be taken seriously?

Here are a few suggestions (from a former photographer who now gets to watch the photographers from the other side of the room):

Be careful about what you put on paper. You are actually being evaluated on the cutlines, memos, evaluations, purchase requests, etc., that you write. So buy a dictionary and use the spell checker. Find a stylebook. Let a copy editor read your memos before you submit them. Write an occasional story to
prove that you are a "well-rounded" journalist. (Your writing is a BIG deal. The word people complain about bad cutlines, poor grammar, misspelled names and shady fact checking. The more polished your writing is, the more respect you are granted.)

Wear the uniform. Instead of jeans and hiking boots, change into pressed slacks and a long-sleeve shirt before the news meeting. Keep a tie and jacket on hand for when you will be in front of the publisher or mayor.

Modulate your voice. Photographers love to bitch. But a well-reasoned, quietly delivered argument goes much further.

Take a copy editor, city editor or features editor to lunch. And DON'T talk about newspapers or photography. Get to know these people. Let them see you as a person. Talk about your kids, hunting, the cabinets you built for the kitchen. Save any attempts to "educate" for the fifth, eighth or 10th
luncheon.

Be ahead of the game. Read the paper and read the wire budgets early in the day. Know what's going on in the world so you can participate in newsroom and budget meeting discussions.

Be interested and involved in the process, but don't micromanage. (This suggestion comes from a news editor friend of mine.) Attend the planning meetings and have your picture ideas ready. Propose stories. If an assignment is crap, be honest about it; BUT be ready to suggest something better. Offer alternatives at all stages of the process. (One sports editor says he wants more than one picture.) And make deadline.

Apologize when you're wrong. Don't try to explain bad decisions. Just say "I'm sorry, I screwed up," and leave it at that.

Good luck,
Paul Guillory

Picture This!

Via Steve Outing

Eastman Kodak announced it was going to stop selling film based cameras. While this hardly affects me and my work, I am a tad bit worried that the company's next move will mean cutting back on their film products for professionals. That would be disastrous. Call me old-school, but I still shoot film. Sigh!

"The move comes amid Kodak's controversial plan to focus on high-growth digital products, such as medical imaging systems, and reduce dependence on its declining film business."

From the financial aspect of things, Kodak is trying its best to stave off the accountants who have seen red for far too long. Just as soon as the announcement was made, Kodak's shares were up by 1.33%. That should keep both the accountants and the shareholders somewhat happy.

"Kodak said that it plans to continue making reloadable cameras that use 35-millimeter film in emerging markets, such as China, India, Eastern Europe and Latin America and that it will introduce six new cameras in those markets this year."

Creative License

Seth Resnick and Paula Lerner of Editorial Photographers are waging a battle that you must know about.

If you are creating work and calling it your own, please read the note below.

Folks, your work, once you create it, is YOURS. Until it sinks in, repeat that last sentence a couple of times. Too many people out there forget this fact. Just because your work is published in XYZ magazine or newspaper or web site or CD-ROM, does not mean the publication owns your work. Sure, there are situations where and when you enter into a contract to sell your work outright. Sheer lunacy, but I'll take that up another time. But what is being debated here and now is the tendency for big name publishers to assume that because they paid you for the use of your images, they have the right to re-use your images ad infinitum. That's simply not true.

For those of you starting out in the business, it may be all too tempting to "give" away your images or work or work for free. Don't! Who wouldn't like to be published in The New York Times or People magazine? No doubt, getting published is important, but so is having a livelihood. Look to the future, not just the here and now. Enter into a written contract to LICENSE your work. This is an important distinction that I urge you to make early in your career and this piece of advice comes from me having learned this the hard way.

A license allows the publisher the specific use of your image for a specific amount. Multiple usage should garner you multiple payments. The nitty-gritty details need to be fleshed out in a written contract that both you and your client have signed.

Stay clear of verbal agreements. A litany of winks, nods and nudges may have sealed the deal but it will not convince any judge in court that you have the kind of rights over the publication of your images, or, even words.

We all make choices, don't we? What will be yours about your future?