ZWCX Media Photography

Is Photography art?

2008-11-12T09:19:00.002-05:00

Art and Photography

I've been asked an interesting question recently: Is photography art?

My first response was "of course!", but after thinking about it, that's not quite right either. Photography is just a tool, it's what you do with it that counts. A pencil or a brush is not art, but you can create art with it. Many people seem to mistake the tool for the intent. If I use a pencil to write my grocery list, it's not art, but in the hands of an artist, it can create art. If I use my paintbrush to paint a room, it's not art, but in the hands of an artist, it can create art. Jackson Pollock created art with mush the same tools used to paint a room in my house.

It's the wrong question. Lots of photography is not art, just as lots of painting and drawing is also not art.

Photojournalists use photography, but are not necessarily artists, as most of their work is intended to inform and document events. They also follow strict ethical rules about that can and cannot be done in the making of a photograph and the post production work. People can and do lose their jobs for breaking them (and rightfully so). They are journalists who use a camera, which is a very different and important role. [Full disclosure, I am a member of the Canadian Association of Journalists and am engaged as a photojournalist for some assignments. I am very much aware of the ethical and professional requirements. I am not making art when I am working as a photojournalist.]

The staff in the camera shop in Walmart are not artists, they are technicians, as they are simply manufacturing a product - with a prefocused camera and preset lighting, using a tool that was installed by someone else. There are millions of photographers who are simply documenting personal events, such as birthdays, parties, and the like. None of these people are artists, nor do they intend to be so.

Some photographers, including photojournalists, are artists, working to produce works for purely artistic reasons. They are trying to express and aesthetic in photographic form, in the same way another artist might use a paintbrush or a pencil. I consider myself in this category, but my journalistic work is separate from my artistic work. I am using the same tools in totally different ways, with totally different intents.

The definition of an artist is not in the tool, but rather the intent.

Strangely enough, I have seen the greatest resistance to defining a photographer as an artist from within the artistic community - particularly other visual artists who work in other mediums such as paint or pencil. I've recently begun a series of workshops called "Art Photography for the Non-photographer", where I teach visual artists to use photography for displaying their work on websites and portfolios, as well as creating reference works. I discovered this is a real challenge for non-photographic visual artists.

Since I was a journalist before taking up photographer, I like to ask questions, so I asked them if they considered photography art. Strangely, most did not, but their reasons were interesting and informative.

The first reason, was the camera did all the work. This is, of course, what advertising has been telling us for more than 50 years and it's not really true. Advertising would like to convince you that photography is easy (if you just buy this model of camera), but point and click is a marketing term rather than what actually works for the user. There was an interesting silence when I pointed out that if photography was so easy, why were they attending my workshop. They had all run into problems trying to take acceptable photographs of their work. I also explained that professional photography equipment is actually harder to use and require even MORE training and experience. It's not as easy as it looks.

However, modern digital photography has enable many non-photographers to document important personal events. It has also led many of them into the field of photography and helped develop a greater understanding of visual art and the complexity of making a photograph.

Next, they argued that photography was not a unique process, that copies could be easily made of a photograph. I explained that in the days of film (who less and less remember), the negative was unique, a Polaroid was unique. In professional digital equipment, the RAW file is unique and must be processed to create prints, even for the screen. As well, many visual artists (including photographers) create limited edition prints of their work. Many people buy prints of the classic to put on their wall. Is this not art? If art is decreased by the number of copies in existence, did the Mona Lisa cease to be art at some point? Did Michelangelo's David cease to be art at some point? No, the number of copies does not define something as art, nor decrease the creative effort required.

Of course, there are photographers who consider only film photography art not digital, but they are making the same error, it's not the tool, it's the intent and the result that define a piece as art. Not all photography is art, just as not all drawing is art, not all painting art. Nonetheless, art can be created with photography, as it can with a brush, a pencil, and anything else.

The statement that photography is art is meaningless, just as you cannot say pencil is art or paint is art. However, you can use all three to create art and photographic art (with film or digitial) is just as much art as work created with pencil, paint, or any other tool.

Iphone, Youphone, We all scream for iPhone

2008-10-27T13:51:00.002-04:00

iPhone 3G - A Photography Tool

Well, I finnaly upgraded my aging Palm. I've been a palm user since they first came out, but it looks like the technology curve has overtaken them and, it was time to change technologies.

Although there are many options, for my purposes it came down to a choice between the iPhone and the Blackberry. I finally decided on the iPhone because I did not want to be dependent on another network (besides the Internet) for my email and I wanted as much screen space as possible, which meant no keyboard.

The original iPhone has never been available in Canada, but the 3G was going to be released and by my existing service providor. This can also mean qualifying for a discount if you're a heavy user (I am and I did). Call customer service to see if you qualify. THis also meant changing phones was a simply as changing SIM cards.

First the positives, the screen is huge, filling almost the entire front of the phone and the resolution is fantastic. The detail and colour are the more impressive I have ever seen on a postable device. The communications tools are solid with tremendious focus on the user interface. The mapping software links with the GPS and the contacts list, so if you're searching for a new client's office, it can find it and your own location with ease. You can also dial their number and save the contact with equal simplicity.

The keyboard comes up when required and does take some adjustment, as there is no tactil feedback like physical buttons. It's no big deal and I was comfortable after about half and hour. I also like that the keyboard will guess at the right spelling and catches many of your typos quickly.

An impressive system, however there are some negatives.

First, on a PC the only desktop interface is MS Outlook, which is an additional expense if you're not already using it. The Palm's desktop interface should be a design lesson for all smartphones, as the Blackberry has the same problem. Why does it not occur to these manufacturers that users need to backup their data onto a desktop and may want to access it there. My data is worth more than the phone or even the desktop, we need better tools to protect it.

Second, the iPhone comes with neither a task application nor a robust memos app. PDAs have had these since the beginning why does Apple think we no longer need them? This was the most frustrating part of getting an iPhone. The most common advice was to learn not to use them, which is fundementally wrong. This is a tool and it must adopt to the way I work, not the other way around. It never occurred to me that the iPhone did not have a task and memo app by default. I might have considered a different option had I known in advance.

(BTW, there is a stock memo app, which lacks any real functionality for anything other than a brief and disposible note)

Luckily, there is a wonderful collection of applications available for the iPhone through the app store, which is part of itunes. The interface is clean and there is a collection of both free and purchasable apps. I spent a significant period of time downloading and evaluating task and memos apps before finding a good fit.

Appigo makes a memo and a todo app (called todo), which are just great. Tasks can be divided into different catagories and repeated tasks automaticxally scheduled. You can look at tasks in a partocular catagory or the complete list of tasks due today, tomorrow, and in the future. I use the all task view quite often, as it lets me know what I need to get done. Although these are great apps, I wasted a lot of time and money finding them, when they reall should be part of the stock package.

Even more useful, it links to several different storage services. I use toodledo as my online data backup. I can sync to this directly from the phone, with no need of a desktop, and access the data from a website. Changes are synced the next time I select it. The memo application links to the same service and gives me the catagory options missing from the stock app.

On the photography side, I can easily download my portfolio with the pictures at 420 on the long side. Since the phone is GPS aware, I can shoot reference photos with the location information already in the metadata. The app store has an entire section for photography. Many of the apps are links to your favorite blogging service, but some are specifically useful to the professional photography. Hyperfocal and DoF calculators can be very handy, amongst others.

The wifi interface is great. Once it knows a network, including secured networks it remembers the access information for the future. It also switches seamlessly to the 3G network or another WiFi network as you move between them.

The only downside to the WiFi interface is a business rather than a technical problem. If you leave your service providers area, in my case Canada and travel to the US, your roaming charges are prohibitive. The cellular phone chages are massive, but the data chages are 6000x my local costs. 6000x. It costs me about $30 a megabyte fror data the moment I cross the border. There is no logic to this and the cellular providors should work out a better arrangement. If you phone is unlocked, which is not available for the 3g, you can switch SIM cards to a local providors. Otherwise, you must search out WiFI networks just to check your email. This reminds me of the old days of searching out phone jacks for modem calls, but I reall thnk we should move past this.

Nonetheless, for everything except photographic work and long documents, I can use the iPhone instead of a laptop. On my last few trips, I have even left the laptop at home.

All and all, the iPhone is a fantastic business and photography tool, but it does have a few rough edges. Despite that, I'm very happy with mine.

Insurance

2008-10-10T15:13:00.003-04:00

Are you insured properly?

Well, I ran into an interesting set of problems recently that taught me a few things about managing my business. I have equipment insurance and business liability insurance, but I never really looked at the medical side. Not medical insurance, which I have, but what happens to my affairs and my business if I have a medical issue?

I hit a few medical problems that became a little more serious than I expected and resulted in me spending a few days in the hospital, having a healthy bit of surgery, and a few more days recovering at home. I'm fine now, although I still have some more tests to get done, but they are just followup tests.

I'm not writing this post to talk about my medical adventures, but rather a risk to my business. How's that? Isn't my business separate from myself. Isn't that why I formed a company? Well, not quite, as you are unlikely to be able to completely separate yourself from your business. In the legal sense, your company is separate from your business, but not in the practical sense. Why? You are likely the most valuable asset in your business and the primary means for generating income.

Life gets interesting if something goes wrong with that business asset that is you.

What happens if you get sick or, even worse, pass away? Most single people think this is non-issue, as they have no dependents (usually), but that's wrong. Let's walk around this one.

Suppose you are sick, injured, or otherwise incapacitated, who makes medical decisions for you? I'm not talking about life or death ER decisions. I'm talking about the advocating for you while you're there and deciding between treatment options.

If you're married, this person is likely your wife or husband. If you're living with someone, regardless of how long, they are NOT able to make these decisions. I know this because I'm in that situation and I talked to my lawyer (ask yours). You need a medical power of attorney document, signed and witnessed, to make sure your significant other can watch out for you.

Same situation, how does your wife, husband, or person you're living with pay the bills, both for your business and the household itself. If you can't sign things and you haven't dealt with this, bad things can happen. You need ANOTHER document, called property power of attorney (or sometimes just power of attorney) to make sure someone is allowed to make financial decisions for yourself and your company. Some people use their spouse, some people use their attorney, some people use their business partner (you can limit to just personal or business or even both). In any case, someone needs to be assigned this or your business will come to a grinding halt.

Worst case scenario - you die. If you don't have a will, the state assigns someone to decide what to do with you assets. There is a good chance you would not like their decisions. You need a will. Not a home kit form like I had, but a real will, written by a lawyer, signed by you and witnessed. You do not get a second chance with these things, so do it right.

If you have a spouse (married or living together), typically you give everything to the other. However, you may have some specific things you want to give to specific people. This goes in your will. Fine, but what happens to your business? This REALLY needs to go into your will. What happens if your spouse passes away first or at the same time? Morbid thought, but this REALLY needs to go in your will.

The legal issues are different in different areas, so talk to your lawyer (If you don't have one, get one).You need to look into:

- Medical power of attorney
- property power of attorney
- your will

I had to take care of this while under fire and dealing with significant medical issues . If you don't have these three documents, I urge you to take the time now to address this issue and get it done. These are like parachutes. If you wait until you really need them, it's probably too late.

No Shelter for Photoshelter Collection

2008-09-11T21:56:00.002-04:00

Photoshelter Collection Shuts Down

Sad news today, as Photoshelter announced it was winding down the Photoshelter Collection. No new submissions effective immediately and everything wound down by Oct 10th.

Photoshelter was stated to support the offline storage needs of photographers. It expanded to support direct sales by photographers and then added a stock photography business called the Photoshelter Collection in early 2007.

Unfortunately, Photoshelter has decided to shutdown the stock photography side of the business, but will still engage in archiving and direct sales. Sales of their stock photography were not up to plan and the decision was made to terminate the investment.

The Photoshelter Collection was unique in that in tried to reverse the trend of treating photographs as commodities. Instead of the insulting 20% offered by microstock agencies, they offered 70%.

I guess the good news is their excellent archiving and direct sales service is still going to be available. It looks like this was a difficult decision in difficult economic times. I hope staff are ok and offered other positions/projects within the company. Having been through layoffs myself, it's the human costs that are underestimated.

Strangely enough, I made my first sale with them yesterday.

All the better to see you with, m'dear

2008-08-21T14:11:00.003-04:00

Well, the summer is supposed to be the quiet season and we are supposed to be in a business slowdown, possibly even a recession. Nonetheless, I have been busier now than my busy season and this has resulted in me being rather lax in updating my blog.

Despite the workload, I have been capturing a lot of subjects for the blog and will be updating with a much higher frequency to catchup.

So, let's get on with the first update.....

I've always been told that your monitor is one of your most important pieces of photographic equipment. After you finish with the camera, this is your primary tool for viewing and manipulating your work. Cutting corners here can cost you dearly in the long run.

Unfortunately, many monitors, even expensive monitors fail to display colours properly or with a wide enough gamut for most photographers. Now, if your a Sunday shooter collecting a few snapshots of the kids, this is probably not a big deal. However, if you're a professional or even a serious photographer trying to create the best work you can, this is a real issue.

Once you decide to invest in a quality monitor for photographic work, it's an eye opener. The top of the line Eizo Coloredge CG221 is $4900 (USD). Now this is an amazing 21 inch monitor that defines the market. It's also expensive, but you get what you pay for here.

A little less painful for the pocketbook is the Eizo CG222, which retails for $1300. Certainly not an inexpnsive monitor, but closer to the means of most shooters. This is a 22" monitor of amazing clarity.

Another option is the Lacie 324, which retails for $999 or so. This is a 24" monitor, with amazing colour range.

I recently decided to upgrade to the Lacie 324, based on some recommendations from other shooters. I would like to use a Eizo CG221, but this is a little outside of my budget.

Nonetheless, the Lacie 234 is a solid choice and there is some strength to the arguement that the Eizo CG222, which is a new model from Eizo, was released to respond to the competitive threat from the Lacie 324.

The Lacie 324 24" monitor is wonderful thing to work with, as screen real estate is at a premium, particularly if you are using photoshop and lightroom. If you're using only one monitor, this is an important consideration. Now that lightroom 2 can support multiple monitors, this is more attractive, but I am still using just one.

The glare screeen is an excellent option for environments with less than perfect viewing light. Unfortunately, this applies to most homes and offices. In my office, my hardware is on one side of the room and my desk is on the other, which means I need to run longer cables. It also means that the buitl-in USB hub in the monitor is quite handy for plugging in the myrid number of modern devices that need a USB connection for data transfer and recharging. If you use a graphics tablet, like I do, a close USB connection is REALLY handy.

The monitor stand is also built nicely for raising the monitor off your desk and giving you a little more space for clutter. As well, the power saving feature will powerdown the monitor after 30 minutes or so.

The monitor glare screen also has a small hook for holding your colour calibration device. You can get this from Lacie, but I use the I1 system from Xrite for all my display devices. I like to use the same device for monitor, printer, and projector to ensure the best possible colour.

Here are the detailed specs (from: www.lacie.com)

Diagonal :	24 in. / 61 cm
Display Area :	20.41 x 12.75 in. / 518.4 x 324 mm (HxV)
Apsect Ratio :	16:10
Maximum Resolution :	1920 x 1200
Dot Pitch :	.01 in. / .27 mm
Color :	16.7 million (true 8-bit)
Video Inputs :	HDMI x 2; 24 Pins DVDI-D x 1; 15 Pins D-Sub x 1
Audio Outputs :	Headphone / Speaker mini-jack
Color Gamut :	92% of NTSC / 95% of Adobe RGB / 99.7% of ISO Coated
Gamma Correction :	10-bit
Luminance :	400 cd/m2 (Center, typ.)
Power :	AC 100~240V / 47~63Hz
Contrast Ratio :	1000:1 (typ.)
Response Time :	6ms (G-G avg.)
Viewing Angles :	R: 89, L: 89, U: 89, D: 89 (CR >= 10, typ.)
Certification :	CB, FCC, CE, CSA, Canada DOC, EPA, ISO13406-2, GOST, PSB
USB Port :	1 up, 3 down
USB Output :	A-type Connector x 3
Weight :	Approx. 23.81 lbs. / 10.8 kg Gross Weight: Approx. 29.54 lbs. / 13.4 kg
Dimensions (WxHxD) :	22.28 x 16.45-19.21 x 8.97 in. / 565.9 x 418-488 x 228 mm
Compatibility :	Mac & PC
RoHS Compliant :	Yes
Power Consumption :	140W (max.)
Comments :	*For full automatic performance of hardware calibration with blue eye pro, a graphics board supporting DDC CI communication is required.
Box Content :	LaCie 324 LCD Monitor; AC power cable; DVI-D video cable; HDMI-HDMI cable; USB host cable; Audio jack cable; Cable management accessory; CD-ROM with User Manual and monitor ICC profile; Quick Install Guide
Warranty :	3 Year Limited Warranty with Advance Replacement

I'm very happy with my monitor upgrade and consider the Lacie 324 an excellent piece of equipment. If you are considering an upgrade to your monitor, I would recommend looking at the Lacie 324

Free at Last.....Free at last

2008-06-12T20:59:00.004-04:00

Canadian Copyright Revision

Today, after many years of lobbying by the Professional Photographers of Canada (PPOC) (www.ppoc.ca) and the Canadian Association of Photographers and Illustrators (CAPIC) (www.capic.org) have worked together to repeal section 13 (2) of the Canadian Copyright Act.

Photographers outside (and some inside) Canada will be shocked to hear that in Canada the copyright for assignment photography goes to the hiring agency by default. Yep, unlike the rest of the civilized world, unless you have a contract that specifically states you retain the copyright, it's automatically given to whoever hired you. Yes, all photographic rights are lost unless you get it in writing to keep them. (I know there are some Canadian shooters staring at the screen in shock, but I'm not kidding).

Today, Bill C-61 was entered into the House of Commons to append the Canadian Copyright act. You can read a summary of the bill here:
http://www.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/crp-prda.nsf/en/rp01163e.html

Of course, people are also upset because this will also interfere with copying music, movies, and other electronic entertainments, but I have no problem with it. There are also mummers that this may be like the DMCA laws in the US. Hogwash, most people complaining about this have no understanding of US or Canadian copyright laws. Basically you don't get to use someone else's work for whatever you want, which means Canada will finally be in compliance with a treaty it signed in 1996.

Personally, I also have no problem with these laws. If you try to remove copyright information, you violate the law. If you post copyrighted material to a website, I want to be able to send a takedown notice to the ISP and have it removed. No lawyers, no hassle, I email the notice to them, identifying myself as the copyright holder and it's done.

Yes, this means you will no longer be able to trade copies of the transformer movie with your friends - go buy or rent a copy. It also means you can't steal my work. Copyright was designed specially to protect the individual artist of limited resources from larger organizations who want to steal it and use it.

All of the changes in this bill are good things. It reinforces that when someone creates something, they both own and control it. For the individual, this also means someone can't steal you photographs off facebook or myspace and use them at will. Too many people think these changes are for the benefit of corporations, but this actually benefits individual artists.

As a professional photographer, my copyright is my greatest asset. I'm ecstatic to hear that finally my copyright will remain with me by default as well as other protection. It means that a client cannot use my work in other mediums, like a website or video podcast, without my permission.

The Writer's strike in the US was about EXACTLY this issue. They wanted to be paid when a studio decided to release a movie on DVD, podcast, or itunes. A lot of people endured a lot of financial hardship in that strike for just this issue. Do you think the writer's were doing this to protect a corporation - no, they were protecting themselves.

I'm standing and applauding this bill. It's about time.

Contact Festival - That's a Wrap

2008-06-02T13:49:00.003-04:00

Contact.....We have Contact......

May is an interesting month in Toronto, Spring is (usually) in full gear and summer just around the corner. As well, the Contact Photography Festival happens - for the whole month. It makes May worth the wait.

The Contact Photography Festival happens every May in Toronto and is now in its 12th year (13th, if you consider this year done), with over a million visitors to its events. This is the largest photography event in the world, according to their website, so there is something for everyone.

The festival is a swarm of little events spread throughout the city and surrounding area. This year had 500 artists in more than 200 venues. The guidebook is nearly 100 pages with very little wasted space. By being widely spread and over the entire month, the festival has the benefit of being noticed and local to almost everyone. It's easy to see how they can claim a million visitors.

More information here:

CONTACT Photography Festival

80 Spadina Ave, Suite 310

Toronto, Ontario M5V 2J4

T 416-539-9595

F 416-539-0829

info@contactphoto.com

www.contactphoto.com

It's hard to see everything, but I make an effort every year to visit some of it and next year I intend to be more involved.

Besides some of the gallery events and displays, I also managed to attend the wrap party last week (Thursday) at the Drake Hotel in Toronto. I've never been to the wrap party for Contact before, so I expected this to be quite the do. Nancy-Marie was unable to attend, but I brought along one of my partners in crime, Steve Shien. Nancy-Marie had phoned to make sure we were on the guest list and warned us to show up on time to make sure we could get in.

I'm not sure what happened, but there was no real difficulty in getting in, nor was there any name checking or VIP section that I could tell. Of course, we may have simply been idiots an unable to notice something happening in another room or upstairs, but the curator for the event was visible in our area for most of the evening, so I think we were in the heart of it.

After some speeches and award presentations, the party pretty much blended into the usual Thursday night bar scene for the area. We decided to head down the block for a little boost from Starbucks, when we noticed a display outside the hotel.

On the long window facing the street, there were three screens of 4'x6' each, playing video photo essays from Magnum in Motion, with full sound. Fortified with caffeine, we returned and spent the next hour or so watching the videos on the sidewalk. Personally, I found the videos much more interesting than the party people antics inside.

Even more fascinating was watching people on the street deal with the photographic displays. Magnum is a world class photo agency (if not the definitive photo agency) and their photographers have covered a wide variety of areas and events, some of which are difficult to watch, but all are important and moving.

It was surreal to see people walk past large photographs of natural disasters or war zones without noticing. Some people looked and walked on, some stopped to watch, but many simply failed to notice what was less than 4' from them and larger than life. They didn't ignore it, I mean it simply failed to register with them. completely. Like it wasn't even there. They were focused on talking to their friends, watching who was watching them, or trying to get into the bar, but not on the photographs of dramatic human events next to them. I estimate at least 3/4 of the people going by did not allow this photographic drama to even enter their world.

I confess to be a little shocked, but not so surprised, at self absorbed behavior of my fellows. We have become, in many ways, a callous society. It was a unique experience to see people able to mentally edit photographs that had to occupy close to a quarter of their field of view. In fact, I was so moved by these events, I went out and bought a Canon G9 on the weekend, so I could capture this type of thing in the future.

Magnum in Motion: inmotion.magnumphotos.com
Magnum: www.magnumphotos.com

World Press Photo Awards

2008-05-21T13:54:00.003-04:00

World Press Photo is focused on supporting professional photojournalism though seminars, exhibitions, educational programs, and an annual contest. It is the annual contest that attracts the most attention form both the public and photojournalists. A World Press Photo award is a high honour and a sign out outstanding work.

World Press Photo publishes a yeakbook annually of the award winning work, which is well worth reading. Besides the yearbook, the worldpressphoto.org website now has online interview with the award winners about their work. Each 5-10 minute short includes a large view of the award winning photographer, with a small video in the lower left corner of the photographer discussing their work. It's amazing how much skill and effort goes into this work that if often taken for granted by the public.

Good photography is a LOT more than point and click.

Take a Tablet and Call me in the morning

2008-05-06T21:32:00.002-04:00

Now, if you're like me, you've heard of tablets and how handy they are to use with photoshop. If you're also like me, you've been doing just fine with a mouse and involved in too many other things to learn a new technology unless it's critical.

When I was at Imaging USA in Florida earlier this year, Jed Toufler (www.v-gallery.net) showed me what he likes about tablets. He had a small Wacom Intous 4x6 tablet (www.wacom.com/intuos) with his laptop for use on the road. He was actually showing some interesting stuff in Photoshop, but I got distracted by how fast he was with the tablet.

Jed's enthusiasm is a bit infectious and I soon found myself in front of one of the vendor booths, buying a 6x8 tablet for myself. Of course, once I got back home, I found myself with several problems. I didn't have a long enough USB cable to reach from my system to the monitor on the other side of the room and other projects soon consumed my time.

Well, along comes my office move and I found myself at the electronics store looking for a few things and remembered the USB problem. With the addition of a USB extender, I could now play with my not-so-new toy.

Jed was pretty honest and said it would take a little bit to get used to the tablet, but would love it. He was absolutely right. I'm not an expert yet with the tablet by any means, but I found myself proficient with it within 10 to 20 minutes - and I love it.

Using a tablet has some pleasant surprises. It's a lot more sensitive than a mouse (or at least my mouse) and you have the added dimension of pen pressure, which affects the brushes particularly. Photoshop brushes now act like real brushes with a tablet, rather than crop circles, as with the mouse.

It doesn't seem to care if you use your left or right hand and even a 6x8 is a comfortable size for desktop work. I haven't even really explored the programmable keys on the tablet, but I can see how they would be useful.

There are larger sizes, from 6x11, to 12x19 and one smaller size, the 4x6, which I'm told works well for laptops. I have no problems with the 6x8, but may play with one of the larger units in the future.

Wacom does another line of tablets called the Cintiq, which actually display the picture on the tablet itself. It's an interesting ideas, but I don't really like. I found mu hand blocked what I was trying to do and was a bit of a hassle. Since artists have been using pens for some time, I presume this may simply be a case of me needing to get used to the tablet screen, but who knows.

I recommend trying a tablet the next time you're working heavily in Photoshop. I found it particularly useful while retouching portraits.

Professional Photographers of Canada Conference

2008-04-18T09:42:00.010-04:00

Well, I'm tired with a slight cold, but I had a wonderful time at the PPOC annual convention.

This year it was held in London, Ontario, which is ridiculously close to the ZWCX Media world headquarters. Close enough to drive, but far enough away to require a hotel. I prefer conferences that take you out of town, as it avoids the temptation to try to work during the event.

If you've never been to one, professional photography conferences are a strange and wonderful event. First, it's a chance to meet the members you usually only get to talk with by phone or email. Second, it's a chance to see and hear speakers who are outstanding in their work and passionate about sharing with other photographers.

This was my first PPOC conference, although I have been to the Imaging USA conference of the PPA several times in the US. The PPOC conference has the same feeling as the PPA conferences, even with significantly less people (Imaging USA has around 9,000 shooters show up and the PPOC conference is probably closer to 1,000). It's well worth the time and expense to attend.

Although the event rant from Thursday, April 10th to Wednesday, April 16th, I was only about to be there from Saturday the 12th through the evening of Tuesday the 15th.

Besides seeing people I knew and meeting new ones, my favorite part of a photography conference is the speakers.

Claude Charlebois (www.charlebois.ca) gave a stunning presentation on how he approaches the business while nourishing the artist. His subject matter covered the habits of great artists and how to adopt their approach to your own style, along with a discussion on developing your style with examples of his own experience.

Arthur Rainville and Jennifer Hudson (www.studiorainville.com and www.oliveavonlea.com) delivered a joint presentation on the fusion of Art, Technique, and Business. This included samples of their own work, a live photo shoot, and an walkthrough of their post production process.

Hanson Fong (www.hansonfong.com) presented on his posing technique and how he deals with the complexities of wedding and portrait photography. It was an excellent explanation and demonstration of why simple is usually better.

Julieanne Kost (www.jkost.com) is a digital imaging evangelist for Adobe and gave an excellent presentation on Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. Although I use both packages extensively, I learned more than few things to help me work more efficiently.

One of the stranger things to happen was a fire at my hotel. Now, having been in a building fire before and on the 11th floor of my hotel. I did the smart thing and stayed in my room. Disturbingly, there were no announcements to let people know what's happening, but I finally phoned downstairs and was told to evacuate. Typically, I grab my camera gear and leave my jacket, head down the stairs and start shooting the firetrucks.

On Tuesday night, I attended the banquet and was seated at the President's table. This is because I had bumped into Walter Janzen (www.janzenphotography.com , Preseident PPOC) at the Imaging USA conference in Tampa, Florida). Strangely enough, I met Andrea Nielsen, of As it Happens Photography in Florida as well and she is practically a neighbor.

The banquet was the fun, as I had a chance to see all the work of the award winners there. The level of work was simply stunning and even the student awards were outstanding. Once the awards were finished, I was off on the road home and back in the office.

I'm already looking forward to next year.

Moving Around II

2008-04-11T15:46:00.003-04:00

Well, I finally finished my move. Despite my reluctance to change things, I think this is a huge improvement. Thanks to Nancy-Marie for convincing me to finally get moving (literally).

It's strange how you can concern yourself with the tools and equipment to work, but forget about the workspace in which to use them.

As of now, I have:

enough shelf space for my ever growing collection of books,
a usable window,
better ventilation (surprising how much heat comes from computer equipment),
space for the dog to visit without sharing the chair,
a reading area (see book collection above), and
strangely enough, an actual fireplace in my office.

It's well worth your time to look at your own office space, be it large or small, and look how you use it. Make a list of the things you would change and eventually you'll come up with a plan to improve it. Given how much time you spend in your workspace, it' surprising how little we plan for it. It's also a pleasant suprise to find how small changes can lead to big improvements.

Moving Around

2008-04-02T09:31:00.003-04:00

Well, I'm in the midst of one of the more painful events. I'm moving, not into a new place, but moving my office. After several years in a small room, I am moving to a brightly light office with plenty of space. In fact, it even has a fireplace, which is unusual.

Of course, this has lead me to discover several things. One, I have way more stuff in my office then it was ever designed to hold and two, it's a lot harder and more time consuming to move your office than I expected. In fact, I am just about to move the computers and printers and, since things sometimes go wrong, I thought I would post my weekly blog entry before disaster struck.

I've also discovered that the top step of a flight of stairs is often just an inch or so taller than the other ones. This will lock the tires of a dolly from going any further. Of course, I discovered this after hauling a large filing cabinet up the flight of stairs by myself. I had to climb around the cabinet and lift it from the back, while fighting off visions of being crushed by the cabinet rolling down the stairs. One of my life's goals is to never make the cover of a newspaper by dying in some stupid and creative manner. I usually avoid this, but this time I came close.

All and all, I think moving an office once and while is a good thing has it makes you look at how you use or don't use your space properly and it's gives you a chance to clean out all the junk you collect over the years.

I'll post a photo once I'm back online.

Protecting Your Assets

2008-03-26T19:07:00.007-04:00

Well, I try to update this blog on a weekly basis, but life sometimes gets in the way and it's been several weeks since the last update.

Nonetheless, I thought I would share some advice for the photographers out there who may be reading. One of the biggest challenges of modern photography is protecting your digital assets. This is otherwise known as Digital Asset Management (DAM).

First, a book recommendation - go get a copy of "The DAM Book" by Peter Krogh from O'Reilly (ISBN# 0-596-10018-3). This is probably the standard text for understanding both the technology and the issues involved with proper digital management. This is not a simple subject, but it does break up into nice simple to understand parts. Taken in pieces, it's pretty easy to look at your own requirements and make informed decisions.

Peter Krogh also has an excellent website supporting readers of his book:
http://www.thedambook.com/

One of the big elements to proper Digital Asset Management is making sure you have backup copies of everything of value. If you're shooting as a hobby the loss of your work is heart breaking. If you're shooting for a living, it's professionally fatal. Clients generally do not accept any excuse for the loss of their work, nor should they.

I have multiple copies of everything on multiple drives, usually in three different places. I'll talk more about my office data management in a future post, but challenge of my own DAM is how to protect myself from theft or loss. For example, some miserable soul, breaks in and steals my equipment. Everything is insured, but what happens when they steal my harddrives and backup harddrives? As well, what happens if there is a fire or other event that damages my office.

Everything is replaceable under my insurance policy, but I can't get my data back. Scary thought, losing thousands upon thousands of photographs, never to be able to replace them.

My first solution, was to backup my data onto removable hardrives and simply put them in a safety deposit box. I do this once a quarter and might increase this to once a month, but I am still exposed between bank visits. Some shooters I know keep the backup disks at home and the studio.

Now I'm taking advantage of the services of Photoshelter. This company was formed to focus specifically on the storage requirements of photographers and offer an online storage from 100MB to over a terabyte. I'm currently chewing into a terabyte, but I can upload a shoot as soon as I complete it and access these files form anywhere in the world. I'm still bringing all of my files online, but I'm pretty happy with this solution and their customer service.

More info here

How white are your whites?

2008-03-10T13:21:00.005-04:00

How white are your whites?

One the biggest challenges of photography is understanding just good the Mark I eyeball is at dealing with light. The human eye is capable to dealing with light at a level well beyond any camera in existence, particularly with dynamic range and colour temperature, or white balance.

Colour temperature makes a fire look orange and a florescent light green, but the human eye can render it all in the correct colour while the camera cannot. Hence the strange and interesting colours when shooting under artificial light, or even just a cloudy day.

Most cameras, even simple point and shoots, have an option to set colour temperature (cloudy, sunny, indoors, night, etc) or more exact setting on professional cameras. If you shoot raw, like I do, you can set the colour temperature after the fact or even change it at will. Unfortunately, the all have the same problem, even with photoshop. Unless you have a white object in the picture, how can you define "white" (or grey or black) - you need a reference. Usually, this results in best guesstimates and less than perfect results.

One solution is to set a custom white balance using a special filter or card. The filters work well, but setting the custom white balance is rather time consuming and needs to be done again whenever the light changes. This works well in a studio, but usually fails in the field, particularly with changing light.

One solution is to have a standard target, in either colour or black&white, for reference. You've probably seen the square filled with little patches of colour from vendors like Getag-MacBeth. They work great, but don't travel well, as they about the size of a sheet of paper and somewhat fragile. Once more, a great studio solution that doesn't work well in the field.

My favorite tool for setting white balance in the field is the WhiBal kit. It's made from very durable plastic, and coloured to include a black, grey, and white area. It's also been tested with a spectrophotometer to make sure each patch is accurate in colour. You simply take a picture of the card in your hand under the lighting conditions and you have a solid reference for white, grey, and black.

The previous version used three different cards that you fanned out to have a sample of each. Each card was a little bigger than a business card, so you could carry it around, but the fanning out was a bit of a pain while event shooting. This has now been reduced to a single card, with a carrying case and neck strap. This makes it easy to carry and access, even during a fast moving shoots, such as events.

The current version, which is the 6th version, is now a single grey card with a black and white sticker. The pocket kit is 2"x3.5", has its own carrying case and neck strap and is very easy to simply keep in the camera bag. The studio kit is 3.5"x6" and the reference kit is 8.5"x11". It's handy to pull out on a shoot whenever the light seems to have change and take a reference shot. The black card lets you use it as a stand for hands free shooting

I recently used mine for a natural light night shoot of a few boats under a bridge. The light was provided by sodium street lights, florescent, and moonlight with snow behind me to reflect everything together. My Whibal reference made my post production very simple.

This is so useful and so important, I'm considering getting a second one for the camera bag as a backup.

You can find this and other useful tools at www.rawworkflow.com

Direct link: http://www.rawworkflow.com/products/whibal/index.html

Website Redesign

2008-02-29T21:03:00.005-05:00

It's been a busy week around here. Besides all the usual work that needs to get done, I've just finished a(nother) major update to the website. Some of the changes are obvious and some are not. Thoses of you with your own websites, might find some interesting material in here.

I've completely redesigned the main page, based on comments and advice from those who know more than I about good website design. My bio details are now on the first page and the latest updates are included there as well.

Although they look pretty much the same, the navigation buttons have been changed from a javascript (bad idea) to traditional links. The reason being that search engines can't find the rest of my site and miss all the good stuff.

I've also moved this blog from running on blogger to being hosted on my own site. This makes it MUCH easier to search through things and helps the search engines link my work with my site. This is much easier to implement than my previous idea (captive page) and fully supported by google, who own blogger in the first place.

I also fixed my links page to include some of the professional groups I support as a member and some of the other sites that host my work.

Finally, I implemented a colo[u]r change (the 'u' for for those who spell the word differently) for the entire website using my corporate colo[u]rs. I really like them and think they go together well, but I would be very interested in your comments.

Working Vacation in Mexico

2008-02-20T21:04:00.000-05:00

A Mayan Winter

This post has been brewing for some time in draft mode, so it's a little off the usual timeline. Nonetheless, I thought I'd finally share it here. It's long, but I hope you like it.

As a first, we decided on a tropical vacation for the holiday season. Although I have worked throughout Mexico and the Caribbean, I've rarely gone there for a vacation.

Since I have trouble with the word vacation, it was also a working one, as I love what I do, so how can I not do it? With that in mind, we decided on the Yucatan peninsula with a variety of interesting Mayan sites to visit.

We actually booked our vacation in August, which I've decided I'm going to do again, as most people are still enjoying the summer and not thinking about winter. This means winter vacation destinations are usually offering some pretty good deals

Nancy-Marie is a trip researching fiend and combed a swarm of sites for prices, descriptions, reviews, activities, and everything else we might need to pick a resort/hotel. She is really impressive at digging up information and planning locations and activities.

Selloffvacations.com had some nive prices and we picked a little hotel called the Bel-Air Collection, but declined the all inclusive, as we don't drink and tend to want to eat in many different restaurants. This can save you a lot of money on a trip, provided you don't spend it on food/drink somewhere else.

The Bel-Air is located south of the main area of hotels (about 10 minutes), but not as far south as the Mayan Rivera, which is about 40 minutes or so south of Cancun. This means you can explore Cancun without paying top dollar for a high end hotel/resort. The Mayan Rivera sounded interesting, but seemed to be focused on the all-inclusive, never leave the resort style of vacation and we tend not to stay still long.

we booked the flights for Dec 20th through Dec 27th, which meant we would be away for both Nancy-Marie's Birthday and Xmas, for the first time.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

charter vacations have one serious problem for photographers, as the baggage limits are ridiculously low, with significant charges if you exceed it. On Sunwing, our charter the limit was 20Kg (44 lbs) for checked bags and 1 carry-on of no more than 5kg (11 lbs). Now any working photographer can tell you your equipment alone can breach 20kg without even trying. I think this is the single biggest problem for traveling photographers.

We spent a LOT of time trying to keep our luggage under the limit and I pulled hair out trying to figure out how to get my gear there. Despite stripping my equipment to the bone, we were still heavy, so I resigned myself to expensive baggage charges.

Our flight left at 6:20am (yes, I said the same thing), which meant a car picked us up at 4am, which means we got up at 3am after staying up late packing. Words fail to capture the sheer joy of the 3am alarm going off.

Strangely, despite no signs of any other brain cells working in the morning (actually middle of the night), I remembered that we could ship 15kg (33 lbs) of sporting equipment and have this added to our weight allowance. Wonder of wonders, our snorkeling equipment in a duffel bag fit the bill nicely. I also wore my photo vest and cargo pants, intending to pocket as much as possible through the weight check. (NOTE: There is no personal weight limit, so anything you can fit in a pocket doesn't count - hence big pockets and lots of them :-) ).

Not only did out duffle bag save us, but it only weighed 6Kg (13.2 lbs) and the remaining 11 kg (22 lbs)was applied to our weight limit. This little boost put us under the limit. As well, it was so early in the morning, they forgot to weigh my shoulder bag, which was heavy with gear. (Note, there is a real trick to carrying a heavy shoulder bag and making it look light). No excess baggage charges.

We arrived in Cancun about 9:30am and got into the hotel by about 10:30am. The next scheduled event was a nap and then some pool time and an early evening.

We ate dinner at the hotel and the staff was nice enough to "create" a cake for Nancy-Marie's birthday. Despite excellent service, the food was not so great, although the cake was nice.

Friday, December 21st, 2007

A wonderful morning spent by the pool and a swim in the ocean for me. I really miss the ocean, as I grew up by it and the Great Lakes are just a poor substitute for it.

We decided to head into Cancun proper, but by bus instead of cab, as suggested by one of our guidebooks. It was even more fun than expected. There is only one road up and down the hotel strip and every bus takes it, so as long as you are not going too far into Cancun, any bus will do. The bus costs 6.5 pesos per person, which is about 65 cents and is well worth the money.

As near as we can tell, the bus drivers rent their buses and need a certain number of fares to make money. The result is buses race each other, beep at each other, and generally compete for fares along the road. It's like a giant video game and a lot of fun to watch, particularly from within one of the buses. We ended up taking the bus a lot, just for the entertainment value.

Nancy-Marie on the Bus

During our bus adventures, we discovered the secret location of the holy Starbucks, which meant good coffee (i.e. with expresso) was once more available. Given the number of people who wanted to know where we found it, I think Starbucks should publish maps.

Late in the evening we discovered a restaurant called Harry's, which turned out to be the best restaurant in Cancun. The service was outstanding, the food incredible and the seating area is right next to the lagoon.

Their website is www.harrys.com.mx and I highly recommend it.

Saturday, December 22nd, 2007

A quiet day, but we explored a bit more of Cancun and planned some excursion trips. I haven't taken many photos, but I'm focused on the Mayan sites.

Cancun

Mexican Sunset

We book a trip to Citzen Itza for the next day, a trip to Cozumel for the 25th, and Coba for the 26th. Since Cozumel has some of the best diving in the world, it seems like a logical place for Nancy-Marie's first open water snorkeling adventure. I've been a certified diver since 1979, so I can keep an eye on her.

Sunday, December 23rd, 2007

Despite being worried about group tours and being trapped with annoying people, this turned out to be an excellent tour. The bus was modern and comfortable and the tour guide extremely experienced. In fact the tour guide, Manny, was part Maya, a Master's degree in Maya history, and had trained for two years to be a guide. Needless to say, he knew his stuff. The difference between a low end and a high end tour is the quality of the transportation and the guide. Manny was excellent with a real passion for Mexico and Mayan history. I learned an amazing amount about Mayan culture and history during his tour.

Our bus, known as the "Galactic Banana", as it was large, golden yellow, and very high tech, stopped first at a Cenote for a swim and some food. The Yucatan peninsula has no above ground rivers. Since the ground is mostly limestone, they flow underground and occasionally there are openings to reach them called Cenotes. These vary in size from small holes just big enough to fit a person to nearly stadium size.

We stopped at one of the larger ones, and many of the tour members went swimming. The water in incredibly clean, as it's filtered by limestone. Ours was large enough to have a rainbow from one of the rivers flowing into it.

The Cenote

Swimming in the Cenote

An underground rainbow in the cenote

From there it was off to Chitzen Itza. Having a knowledgeable and experienced guide makes all the difference here. It's one thing to look at the interesting architecture, but it's impressive to have the symbolism and history explained at the same time. Wondering around Chitzen Itza certainly explains why it is one of the seven modern wonders of the world.

The Main Pyramid

Where severed heads were displayed

The Center of the Mayan Universe

Military training compound

The goal in Mayan games: Put a 7 lbs rubber ball through this using only your hips. Oh, and this is about 20 feet off the ground.

Needless to say, I took a LOT of pictures and would have taken more if I wasn't trying to keep up with the group.

Monday, December 24th, 2007

A difficult day of going to the beach, shopping in an expensive mall (while buying nothing) and roaming into downtown Cancun.

We found a great little place called Cafe Tulum near the intersection of Tulum and Coba streets. Definitely not focused on tourist traffic with excellent food for very reasonable prices.

We went to dinner at Ruth Chis, which was very nice, but not as nice as Harry's. I consider Ruth Chris an excellent restaurant, but second best to Harry's in Cancun.

Tuesday, December 25th, 2007

Not such a nice day. Our tour to Cozumel was canceled, but not until we sat in the lobby at 7:30am waiting for them to show up. This really annoyed me, as no one phoned to tell us until we started calling people at 8am. By the time we found out what had happened, we missed being able to catch any of the other tours.

Oh well, our backup plan was not too bad. We sat on the beach, swam in the ocean, and phoned people to wish them the best of the season.

Santa?

Wednesday, December 26th

We've signed up for a tour of Coba today, which means being in the lobby again for 7:30am. At 8am, we figured we had been stood up again, but luckily it turned out they were just late in picking everyone up. This time it was a large van instead of a nice bus, but fine nonetheless. This tour was with altournatives and they run a very interesting service. They are focused on making sure that tours produce a minimal impact on the environment and maximum benefit to the local people. You can find out more at altournatives.com.

We traveled to a small Mayan town called Esmeraldes, which has a population of about 30. You need to travel a rough dirt road for a couple of miles off the main road to reach it, which was an impressive feat for a van, as this road really needed a 4-wheel drive.

Once we got there, we had a chance to swim in the Cenote, but this time we had to rappel into it, which was very cool. I've never been rappelling before and Nancy-Marie hates heights and scary rides. Amazingly, she was up for this one and rappelled into the Cenote like a pro.

The Explorer

This was a 50' rappel into water, which was pretty impressive.

After this we travelled to Punta Laguna, where we were taken on a tour through the jungle (very easy to get lost) and treated to a Mayan welcoming ceremony. From there we explored further and had the opportunity to zipline across the lagoon. Nancy-Marie was even up for this as well, which impressed me to no end.

I, of course, should have paid attention to two things. First, a camera bag is a very heavy thing and two, ziplines have weight limits for a reason. A soon as I started down the zipline my camera bag pulled my upside down. Luckily the guide managed to catch me before I left the platform or I was in for a rough trip. I re-strapped my bag to it was in front and off I went. Of course, next I discovered that the weight limit meant, as I dropped low on the line and dragged my legs through the trees before getting out over the water. This tangled my arm in the strap holding me to the line and left me with no free hands.

Oh, I neglected to mention, I had the camera out and was trying to shoot during this misadventure, so as I was turning around on the line, I managed a few shots.

Preparing to launch

Just before discovering the camera bag MUST be in front.

Still shooting

After I finally made it to the other side, I had a chance to talk to some of our people there. Suddenly I heard a high pitched squeel, which meant that Nancy-Marie are overcome her fear of scary rides and was ziplining her way across the lagoon - amazing.

After ziplining, we paddled across the lagoon for lunch. Strangely, I found the paddling portion the scariest, as the canoe was rather tippy and I knew my gear would take me to the bottom in a hurry,

Once fed, we left for Coba, This is one of the older Mayan cities and founded in an area with lots of water. At it's height, more than 50,000 people lived here. Coba has a huge pyramid that you can climb, which you cannot do in most places. It's an amazing view, but a hell of a climb up, particularly with the ever popular camera bag with you.

A serious set of stairs

Going down is almost as hard as going up

Mayan writing

Thursday, December 27th

Last day and heading home. Not much happened here, except for the usual complications in trying to get onto the plane without paying excess baggage charges. Once more our snorkelling gear, which we never got to use, paid for itself, but saving us the baggage fees.

This time I did not get away without having my camera bag weighed. However, there is an advantage to knowing your gear well, as I was able to remove my camera while putting it on the scale without making the removal obvious. Nancy-Marie saw me do it, but the airline did not. Now my camera with lens is probably close to 7 lbs, so this was the difference between being over or not. Without the camera, I was not and. once more, we dodged the baggage fees.

It was a long flight back with a screaming child for the entire trip. Leaving in the evening also meant we arrived at close to 2am and got home at 3:30am. This makes for a rough flight, but it was a great trip nonetheless. I'm already planning out next adventure in the area.

More Interesting Non-Photo Photo Gear

2008-02-06T15:49:00.001-05:00

Well, just after I posted my past entry I needed to order another pair of boots, as I've worn the last ones out. This will be my third pair, and this one carried me from the Scottish highlands to the jungles of the Yucatan peninsula and just about everything in between.

I love these boots, as they are waterproof yet breathable, lightweight but long lasting, and capable to maintaining traction on just about any surface including wet ones. When you're shooting outdoors your footwear is almost as important as your camera, as the last thing you need is a nasty fall and broken equipment.

My boots of choice are from Oakley and called the SI Assault boot. They are the civilian version of Oakley Military boot and available in boot, tall shoe, and shoe sizes. I prefer the boot, as it keeps you dry while stomping through puddles. I have no idea what the difference is between this version and the military version, but I would be interested in hearing if anyone knows more.

You can often find these boots at the local Oakley store, but I prefer ordering online. They are about $250, which is not cheap, but they are well worth it, and you can find them at www.oakley.com. The boots look like:

I wear mine until they wear out, which is about as strong a recommendation I can give something.

Finally - Gloves for shooters

2008-02-03T12:42:00.001-05:00

If you're like me and you shot outdoors, at some point the weather will turn cold. I'm pretty good in cold weather, but eventually I need to wear gloves.

When you're trying to shoot, this creates problems, primarily that you need to remove the gloves to do almost anything. Reaching into a pocket, changing a setting, reaching into the photo bag all require the removal of a glove or two. Once this happens, your hands start getting cold and you probably lose at least one of the gloves. I can;t tell you how many gloves I've left like little mementos of my visit.

Lowepro has some wonderful photographer's gloves that both protect against the cold and allow you to work with your gloves on. These mesh fabric gloves are thin, but warm, and have something called "control dots on the palm and finger side. These dots let you work even the tiniest buttons without removing the gloves.

More info at: http://products.lowepro.com/product/Photo-Gloves,1990,44.htm

I've used these now in temperatures as bad a -17C and they were fine. Even though they're mesh, they seem fine in strong winds. I haven't used them wet, but I think they might even be fine then.

These take up very little space in a bag, cost about $30, and can mean the difference between a good shoot and a bad time. I'm even thinking of getting spare pairs.

The Legalities of Photography

2008-01-22T19:13:00.000-05:00

I've been a bit tardy in updating my blog, but I have been traveling quite a lot recently and it's certainly chewed up my free time.

Nonetheless, here is an interesting video from Darren Pollard on Youtube. Many photographers (and videographers) are unaware of their rights and surrender immediately upon a confrontation with the authorities. Darren Pollard is NOT one of these people. In this video, he stands his ground and asserts his rights against a couple of overzealous officers who should know better.

May favorite part is when he asks them "what section" when they claim his photography is an offence. This question should be burned into every shooters mind and asked whenever challenged about photographer in a public place. You need to either defind your rights or loose them, there is no middle ground.

Pay the Writer

2007-12-08T13:04:00.002-05:00

One of my favorite writers, Harlan Ellison, was recording discussing the common habit of publishers to expect content for free. Harlan had some choice comments for both the publishers who expect this and the writers who are stupid enough to comply.

Although he is discussing writers, it is just as applicable (if not more so) to photographers. It's the amateurs who make it difficult for the professionals.

Transcript
" a young woman calls me" about the a video interview he's done about his role on Babylon 5, and he recounts "she says 'we'd like to use it on the DVD, can that be arranged', I said, absolutely, all you've got to do is pay me, and she says 'what?', I said you gotta pay me, she said 'well, everyone else is just doing it for nothing', and I said 'everybody else may be an a*shole, but I'm not, I said, 'by what right would you call me and ask me to work for nothing, do you get a paycheck?" 'well yes' (she responded)....'how dare you call me and want me to work for nothing', 'well it would be good publicity' (she responded), 'lady, tell that to someone a little older than you who has just fallen off the turnip truck, there is no publicity value in my being on the DVD...the only value for me is to put money in my hand..."

Hopefully, this will provide a bit of guidance for the next time you're asked to donate your work.

Scott MacQuarrie