Assistance Wanted Photographers and Assistants have their say. Wanted: Hard working, energetic, responsible person able to carry 90-pound bags and rewire small electronics. Must not be afraid of heights or susceptible to motion sickness. Be equally as enthusiastic about working with fashion models and celebrities as with livestock, inanimate objects, mops and brooms. Must be able to wake up early, work long hours and function on little sleep. Valid driver's license and passport required; multiple languages a plus.

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:

From Pixels to the Printed Page Eight photographers discuss the pros and cons of digital photography in their businesses: How they use it, what they like and hate, what the clients think, how to bill for post-production time, where the technology is going and where it needs to go.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Digital Imaging Imaging and imagebases General resources Technical resources Standards, Specifications, Formats Bibliographic resources Resources at other sites

PHOTOGRAPHY IN PUBLIC AREAS » FREE DOWNLOAD - The UK Photographers Rights Guide. Permalink 19/11/04 22:33 , Categories: Photographers Rights I'm pleased to announce the launch of the UK Photographers Rights PDF. This is intended to provide a short UK guide to the main legal restrictions on the right to take photographs and the right to publish photographs that have been taken. The guide was written by Linda Macpherson LL.B, Dip.L.P., LL.M, who is a lecturer in law at Heriot Watt University, with particular experience in Information Technology Law, Intellectual Property Law and Media Law.

A primer on invasion of privacy Celebrities, politicians and other sought-after sources of news would appear, by their routine claims that members of the media have violated their privacy, to understand precisely what is private and what is public, or newsworthy, information. Journalists, however, often possess different notions of privacy and newsworthiness, and know that the question is more complicated. Reporting news stories in a way that serves and informs the public will often entail publicizing facts or displaying images that will embarrass or anger someone.

Digital Images and Fair Use Web Sites Maryly Snow Librarian Architecture Slide Library University of California, Berkeley I'm going to discuss digital images on the World Wide Web using three fair use web sites as examples: SPIRO, the visual public access catalog of the Architecture Slide Library at the University of California, Berkeley; the Vincent Van Gogh Information Gallery; and the Art Imagebase from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. This presentation is structured into three segments: introduction to the notion of fair use web sites; presentation of the three fair use web sites; problems and idealized solutions for the use of digital images in fair use web sites.

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.

AP Images, a division of The Associated Press, is one of the world's largest collections of historical and contemporary imagery. As an essential source of photographs and graphics for professional image buyers, AP Images strives to meet the needs of today's global customer through superior image quality, selection and service.

Press Releases 02/16/2006 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS STATEMENT OF NEWS VALUES AND PRINCIPLES For more than a century and a half, men and women of The Associated Press have had the privilege of bringing truth to the world. They have gone to great lengths, overcome great obstacles - and, too often, made great and horrific sacrifices - to ensure that the news was reported quickly, accurately and honestly. Our efforts have been rewarded with trust: More people in more places get their news from the AP than from any other source. In the 21st century, that news is transmitted in more ways than ever before - in print, on the air and on the Web, with words, images, graphics, sounds and video. But always and in all media, we insist on the highest standards of integrity and ethical behavior when we gather and deliver the news.

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.

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.

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.