I know that there will be a lot of objection and offense because of this column. The problem is, it will be misdirected, because it will be directed at me.I will give myself some cover first, it’s inspired by Mark Loundy’s April 2007 column Common Cents: Traitors – The Fifth Column of Freelancing, in which … Read more
Over at Black Star Rising, Scott Baradell highlights the latest from an imaging debacle, where a pet website owner wrote to Inc Magazine. Apparently, a microstock license by this store owner has become a problem, because a competing site is using the same image, and the writer wants to know about stopping it, as the … Read more
I have, for some time, maintained identical collections of images on both PhotoShelter and Digital Railroad. I have not drawn a conclusion that one is better than another, because each has had something different to offer. PhotoShelter, for awhile, has had their own global search capability, and today Digital Railroad has launched their comparable service, … Read more
More than one person was kind enough to alert me to an interesting article about microstock and Corbis and their soon to be new CEO. In today’s New York Times article by Katie Hafner, A Photo Trove, a Mounting Challenge, there are a few interesting excerpts:What Corbis did not foresee was the rise of so-called … Read more
So, over in the Flickr forum, (which I must admit, I visit FAR FAR to infrequently), and interesting discussion was started by a photographer who wanted to know how to price his work – as art – for a hospital, or if he should just give it “on loan”.I proposed to the inquirier – “If … Read more
Brochure? Sales Sheet? What’s the Difference?Is it a transit ad, or a bus back? Does POP really mean Point of Purchase? The way in which we have, for years and years, described the types, sizes, media, and locations of where our photography is used, is dizzying. Enter the PLUS Coalition, a non-profit international multi-industry organization … Read more
What colorspace to deliver in ?Every photographer has an opinion, and there are about 30 experts for every different colorspace. Some swear by sRGB, others swear by ColorMatch, still others insist on Adobe 1998, and then there are the clients who insist on CMYK, and then when you ask them what profile, they haven no … Read more
Do you have a service contract for anything? Do you know what one is? A service contract is essentially a variation on an extended warranty. Apple Care is one that is immensely valuable. For a few hundred dollars, you get protection on your laptop in the event that your machine dies, almost for any reason. … Read more
My office opens at 10am, (but I do take calls if they come in earlier than that), and stays open until 6pm. I frequently stay up late to do paperwork, and every once in awhile I get a call from the west coast at 9pm where the caller is surprised to reach me, saying “oh, … Read more
As USA Today’s freelance photographers toil away, chasing the newly minted boys of summer, look for an angle during the NCAA playoffs, or carefully lighting the latest celebrity for the front page of Life, the penny-pinching tighwad bean counters have foisted upon the desk editors of the “Nation’s Newspaper” the latest rights grab that has … Read more
