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Winds of Change: Is it hurricane season in the photo business? Q&A with creative consultant Carolyn Potts Carolyn Potts was a featured speaker at the ASMP member's meeting held in New York during PDN PhotoPlus Expo. An article with insights from her presentation was published in the ASMP Bulletin's Year End issue. As a complement to the article in print, this online Q&A features more of Potts's marketing insights.

Knowledge is power! Keep your business education in top form. Learn from experts who share their business knowledge with ASMP. Make them your experts and benefit directly from their vast experience. ASMP publishes information and advice on all aspects of the business of publication photography. You can profit from the experience of others by tuning into this resource and applying its lessons to your own experience.

ASMP is the premier resource for community, culture, commerce and publications relating to publication photography. ASMP is the authoritative voice of publication photographers worldwide.

ASMP Licensing Guide Most photographers go into business for themselves because they are passionate about making pictures - not because they want to be in business. The irony is that photographers who do not learn and implement sound business practices will not be able to continue photographing professionally.

Bill Miller's Strategy for Working with Nonprofit Organizations For a print article on pages 22 - 24 of the ASMP Bulletin's Winter 2007 issue, Sarah Coleman interviewed eight photographers who have worked with nonprofits on various levels. She described the obvious benefits, the potential pitfalls and reported on how photographers have managed these relationships, and to what extent their normal business practices were appropriate. Here, Oregon-based photographer Bill Miller provides additional insight into a strategy he's developed to make his nonprofit work a financially viable enterprise for his business needs and a win-win situation for all.

Terms & Conditions for your business paperwork Good paperwork is of the utmost importance in your business. It helps prevent misunderstandings, protects your legal and financial interests, and conveys a crisp, businesslike impression to your clients. Every few years, ASMP publishes a new edition of its manual Professional Business Practices in Photography. The sample business forms in that book represent the best business practices in our ever-changing industry. The medium of print, however, is entirely static and cannot convey the vast range of options that good paperwork must encompass. The Web, in contrast, provides a malleable medium in which the text can be varied to reflect the choices made by users. Hence this module.

ASMP's Copyright Application Tutorial Your original images are your legacy. Like many a photographer, you probably expect to retire on the royalties from the photographs you have made over the years. Early planning, especially with proper copyright protection, can facilitate this. Although every original photograph you create is automatically copyrighted the instant the shutter is clicked, you don't get much legal protection unless you follow through on a few things. So it is important for you to develop an easy system that will allow you to quickly and regularly register your copyrights as soon as possible. In this ASMP Tutorial on copyright, we explain the necessary steps to take and the problems that you should avoid.

Attitude Counts Guidelines for Assistants By Pamela Kruzic The following is a compilation of responses that the author received after posting an inquiry on the ASMP members-only forum at [www.asmp.org] combined with her own experience as an assistant. Information providers: David Budd, Alan Farkas, George Fulton, Ira Mark Gostin, Tom Hussey, Jeffrey Jacobs, Deborah Gray Mitchell, Harrison Northcutt, Michael Sharp. Edited by: Ira Mark Gostin and Michael Sharp. Special thanks to Jerrianne Lowther and Roy Buckner.

Why These Forms are Critical to Your Business By Victor Perlman and Richard Weisgrau Every business day, photographers have a need to communicate transactional information to their prospects and clients. It might be the information in an estimate, the agreement expressed in a confirmation, or the verification of a delivery of photographs. Regardless of the nature of the communication, records of your communications are important, especially when they set the terms, conditions, price, and license to use your work.

An ASMP white paper by Richard Weisgrau Publishers control the day rate that they pay to photographers. In 25 years they have failed to increase the day rate to a level that would allow photographers to maintain the standard of living of 1973. In spite of this failure, many publishers seek more and more rights from photographers for the same low and continuously eroding fees. The situation is out of control. Photographers feel that they cannot control the day rate. They perceive that they have little individual clout in a negotiation with a major magazine. They cannot collectively bargain, since they are independent contractors and not entitled to the collective bargaining power of a union. The simple fact is that the publisher has all the advantages, EXCEPT FOR ONE. If the situation does not improve, good and reliable photographers will eventually be forced to refuse editorial assignments, since these will not support the photographers' costs and commitments to their businesses.

Why you need releases A release is a written agreement between you and the person you are photographing, or the person who owns the property you are photographing. The purpose of the release is to protect you from any future lawsuits the person might file for claims such as defamation and invasion of privacy. A model release says the person being photographed has given consent to be photographed and to the use of the images you capture. It doesn't just apply to professional models or situations where people know they are posing for photos. You should seek to get a signed model release any time that your photos contain recognizable images of people, unless you are certain that you will never want to use them for anything other than editorial purposes. A property release says that the owner of a certain property, such as a pet or a building, has given you consent to take and use images of the property. You don't need one for public property, such as government buildings (although you may run into problems just from photographing them, for security reasons). But for images of private property - and particularly of objects that are closely identified with specific people - you are safer if you get a release. The releases you obtain should be saved forever and should be linked in some way with the photographs to which they relate. You can expect to be asked to produce them whenever you license an image, and you will need them if you ever have to defend yourself in court.

Digital Photography Resources Some years ago, professional-caliber digital cameras began to match, and then to exceed, the capabilities of standard film for many commercial applications. Today, digital photography has taken a firm hold on the market. Both technical and business problems remain to be solved, however, and this page offers some resources to help you find good solutions. There still are, and may always be, certain market niches where silver-halide film reigns supreme. But for most photographers, as for most publishers and advertisers, the technical challenge is no longer to make digital photography work, but rather to get the most productivity and pizzazz from the medium. The business challenge is to forge a new, industry-wide consensus on cost recovery and financial best practices.

Business Tips for the Freelance Photographer By Ira M. Gostin, MBA, © 2008 www.gostin.com This article, and the others in the series, will provide you with tips for establishing, building and growing your photography business. Like any consultant, opinions are presented based on my own experiences and a great deal of research gleaned from 25 years of running a photography business along with an MBA education. Collect data from multiple sources and make decisions that are best for your individual business. The smarter you operate your business, the more opportunity to be creative and have fun. I hope these articles help.

Business Links Below are links that can help you in your business. By linking to these private sites, the ASMP is not endorsing its products, services, or privacy or security policies. We recommend you review the business's information collection policy or terms and conditions to fully understand what information is collected by this private business. Visit Industry Links for links to manufacturers, suppliers and other resources that could help you in your business.

Read our business articles online This section contains a variety of articles on the business of publication photography that cover topics ranging from legal and marketing matters to the intricacies of doing business in the digital environment. Periodically, we will be adding new articles, so please visit again.

Improving a bad contract It is all too common for a publisher to ask you to sign a work agreement that cancels your rights while imposing new obligations on you. But you can protect yourself. First, learn to recognize bad contract terms. Second, be ready to propose fairer terms. Below, we present an example of an extremely bad contract - one that is actually being used by a New York publisher - along with a point-by-point explanation of what's wrong and what would make it better.

Going Digital By Angela Wolff It's the question every photographer asks when making the switch from film to digital: Which camera is right for me? It should be no surprise that the answers are as varied as their subjects and work styles. For many, the decision boils down to the equipment already in use; sticking with the same manufacturer can shorten the learning curve and cut costs. For others, a close examination of business needs balanced with camera capability will help clarify the choice. But whatever you do, don't make the decision based on cost alone. "A lot of people are buying on price, and with [these things] you just can't do that," said Lon Atkinson of Atkinson! Studios in San Diego. "You need to carefully define your specific needs and pick based on what best fits your business."

Taking Stock By Angela Wolff Back in the 80s and 90s, "stock" was the name of the game. The economy was good, the market was hungry, and agencies hustled to get their photographers the biggest clients at the best rates. But then came agency consolidation. New contracts were issued, and many photographers felt their "agents" had become vendors, chipping away at prices, demanding higher sales percentages, and leaving their photographers to fend for themselves. Some photographers have become frustrated and have left the stock game altogether. Others have simply decided to take matters into their own hands. Many are collecting fees from images still represented by the big agencies, while cultivating profitable stock models of their own. They have found ways - by creating their own e-commerce sites, by capitalizing on niche specialties, by maintaining hands-on relationships with buyers, or by turning low-profit deals into moneymakers - to make the most of the current stock market. The photographers we talked to all said that, when licensing their own images, they garnered higher fees than agencies would have. Not just higher than the percentage split they'd usually see on their commission statements, but fees higher than what agencies typically charge their clients in the first place. The reason: As the big agencies gobbled up more and more small agencies and subsequently cut their image libraries, they not only offered lower revenues to their photographers, they also gave their clients fewer options and fewer services.

Words of Wisdom from Women Photographers

Photo Annual Awards You Gotta Play to Win. Photo Competition Call For Entries - Deadlines and Web Links The accompanying PDF contains names, organizers, deadlines, eligibility requirements, fees and Web links for over sixty leading photography competitions and grant programs held in the US and internationally. The details listed have been compiled from information currently available and may include deadlines and costs from past years' events. Please be sure to consult individual competition Web sites for up-to-date information before submitting. It may also be advisable to contact competition organizers for further details or to answer specific questions. Many professional organizations have additional listings of competitions for categories such as advertising, graphic design or broadcast media that may also apply to the work of certain photographers. Here are some additional Web links to pages with these listings: