The granddaddy of the royalty-free (aka RF) world is Photodisc, who’s owners have passed her around as some cheap trick to serve a shifting master. Jim Pickerell writes over at BlackStar rising about their latest woes:When PhotoDisc, Inc. started back in the early 1990s, the owners went to…Weststock [who] had a large stable of photographers … Read more
Mark Loundy has a great column he writes, that I usually first read in my NPPA magazine ‘News Photographer’, but it appears also on the Digital Journalist, as well as his own website. In it, Mark has a section of the article he titles “The Good”, “The Bad”, and “The Ugly”, calling out poor business … Read more
While blogs should not be local, sometimes, a local issue has national (ne, international) implications. Previously I wrote about the NYC permitting issue – why? Because, as NYC goes, so goes other jurisdictions. Now comes a glimmer of hope.The Washington Post is reporting, in their article “Developers cannot prohibit people from taking photographs on public-private … Read more
I grew up on an island in the San Francisco Bay, called Alameda, where I carried my Windsurfer to the beach, and bridges were the way we got off the island, save for one tunnel. Quite frequently, I’d want to do things that my mom knew were bad ideas, but my friends were doing them. … Read more
Making news in the past few days is Digital Railroad’s sales team, led by the überleet Tom Tinervin, an ASP and client services genius, for landing the New York Times Syndicate Photo Service. The NYT Syndicate contains an enormous library of images, and Digital Railroad demonstrates, on a grand scale, the ability for newspapers with … Read more
Well, it seems, everyone’s up in arms about this proposed permitting process on photography in NYC. First things first – it’s not going to become law. Second, If it DOES become law, someone – probably the ACLU will sue on a myriad of grounds and the law will be invalidated. That being said, remember, what … Read more
For several months now, I’ve been hearing about US Presswire, how bad they were for photographers, and how, as the Wireimage sports coverage was being absorbed (or dissolved) into Getty Images Sport, clients were looking for “anything other than the AP” said one person familiar with why you are even seeing USPW credit lines.I listened … Read more
Early on, Bob was a wedding photographer who shot for the NFL on Sundays, and through his work on basketball, ended up at Sports Illustrated. I too did, and on occasion, still do, do weddings. Previously I wrote about wanting to ask Bob, a highly respected long-time Sports Illustrated photographer about US Presswire, and how … Read more
Over 15 years ago, I shared with a friend of mine that I was being signed to Black Star under contract. I was, as a young photographer, excited to say the least. I shared it with exactly two people. One of them called Black Star and offered her services to them. They called me and … Read more
As contracts go, this one’s pretty heinous. I’m not saying it’s alone in that category – the old WireImage contract, Getty’s baseline contract, and others are too. Let’s look at some of the particularly offensive language in this one:I) Grant of Authority. Photographer hereby grants to Agency the exclusive worldwide right to market, distribute, license … Read more
