Please join all the major photography trade organizations by saying “NO” to the NYC Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting (MOFTB) plan to assess a $300 fee for film permit application processing. This is three hundred buck whether you’re doing a three month-long feature film with a crew of hundreds or a 15-minute still shoot with a crew of one.

For a feature film that’s nothing. But in a time that the magazine industry is particularly hard hit and everybody’s budgets are getting pared to the bone, it may me whether a shoot happens or not. This is a poorly conceived idea coming at the worst economic time and destined to place the heaviest burden on those who can least afford it. In short it’s a BAD idea.

All the major photography trade organizations: EP, ASMP, APA and NPPA will be at a hearing next Thursday, June 3 at 2PM at 125 Worth Street auditorium. If you are in the city that day, your attendance would be greatly appreciated!

If that’s not possible, please do the next best thing and sign the online petition saying “NO“!

I was just reading a PDN Pulse post about San Francisco photographer Ken Light.  Ken won a judgment in February against Al Gore’s cable TV network Current TV for unauthorized use of an image. But Current TV has appealed a small claims court award to Light of $500 plus $88 in court costs for unauthorized publication of a 1994 image of Texas death row inmate Cameron Todd Willingham.

Current TV downloaded the photograph off the New Yorker website and published Light’s portrait of Willingham on its website without permission, but is balking at paying up claiming news photographs are free to use under “fair use” which is not the case.

Al should know better. His wife Tipper was a news photographer for the Nashville Tennessean until he was elected to the Senate in 1976. Tipper definitely knows better. Tipper have a talk with your husband.

This is an inconvenient case. Pay up, Al.

Maria Piscopo interviewed me along with my friends  Brian Smale, Robbie McClaran and Shawn G. Henry about changes in the editorial photography market for her piece ‘The Business Of Editorial Photography: Telling A Story With Images” in the January 2010 Shutterbug Magazine. 

I’ll be speaking about the Future of Editorial Photography to students at Brigham Young University on January 20th.

The lecture is free and is open to any professional photographers in the area.

The Future of Editorial Photography
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
Time: 7:00PM
Location: Room 3108 JKB (Jesse Knight Building) Brigham Young University, Provo Utah

Seminar Topics:

• How to get and keep the attention of photo editors and art directors at top magazines
• How production value can make your work stand out
• How to charge properly for digital processing
• What are the best things you can do in a slow economy
• How to maximize re-licensing, syndication and reprint revenue
• How will the shift to online content will affect rates
• What you should know about editorial that nobody told you

Editorial Photography is undergoing rapid change, yet the death of magazine photography has been greatly exaggerated. Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Brian Smith, President of Editorial Photographers, will discuss how to maximize the creative and commercial rewards while avoiding bad contracts, stagnant rates and rights-gobbling appetites of multinational media corporations.

Thanks for generous support provided by:

Editorial Photographers is pleased to announce the winners of the 2nd Annual EP Education Grants student photo competition:

Leah Tepper-Byrne – ICP
Theresa Juarez – Academy of Art University, SF
ValJean Anderson – Academy of Art University, SF
Eliot Crowley – Academy of Art University, SF
Ross Feighery – Columbia College, Chicago
Samuel James – Tufts University
Joseph Escamilla – Pasadena Art Center College of Design

Each winner will receive a $1000 cash prize, ThinkTank Urban Disguise 30 camera bag, Blinkbid Software, one year Livebooks:Edu subscription, one year PhotoShelter standard account, and other prizes.

The winners were selected by members of the EP Board of Directors and Special Guest Judges:

Laurie Kratochvil, former Director of Photography at Rolling Stone and InStyle
Rob Haggart, of aphotoeditor.com, former Director of Photography at Men’s Journal and Outside
Ronnie Weil, Director of Photography at Business Week
Robert Mansfield, Art Director at Forbes

EP wishes to congratulate or winners and thank our lovely judges!
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Editorial Photographers [EP] is a non-profit, mutual benefit organization of working and emerging photographers, educators, and students who participate in the field of editorial photography. EP’s mission is to raise awareness of proper business practices among photographers, and to advocate for contracts and terms that allow both creators and users of editorial photography to profit and prosper. To apply for membership in EP, please visit http://www.editorialphoto.com/register

The entry deadline for Editorial Photographers’ Second Annual EP Education Grants student photo competition is TOMORROW, May 30, 2009.

A total of seven prize packages are available to full time photography students who enter and submit their portfolio by the deadline.  Each package includes a $1000 cash prize, a ThinkTank Urban Disguise 30 camera bag, Blinkbid Software, a one year subscription to Livebooks:Edu, a one year Standard Account at PhotoShelter, and other prizes.

EP is also pleased to announce that our guest judges for the 2009 Grants include Laurie Kratochvil, former Director of Photography at Rolling Stone and InStyle, aphotoeditor.com Rob Haggart, former Director of Photography at Men’s Journal and Outside, Robert Mansfield, Art Director of Forbes and Ronnie Weil, Director of Photography of Business Week.

Get the full details here: http://www.editorialphoto.com/epedu and please feel free to forward this message to any full time student who may be eligible, or to teachers and staff of eligible photography programs. Good luck to all the entrants!
—
Editorial Photographers [EP] is a non-profit, mutual benefit organization of working and emerging photographers, educators, and students who participate in the field of editorial photography.  EP’s mission is to raise awareness of proper business practices among photographers, and to advocate for contracts and terms that allow both creators and users of editorial photography to profit and prosper.  To apply for membership in EP, please visit http://www.editorialphoto.com/register .

To meet late demand, Editorial Photographers [EP] has extended the entry deadline for our Second Annual EP Education Grants student photo competition until May 30, 2009.

A total of seven prize packages are available to full time photography students who enter and submit their portfolio by the deadline.  Each package includes a $1000 cash prize, a ThinkTank Urban Disguise 30 camera bag, Blinkbid Software, a one year subscription to Livebooks:Edu, a one year Standard Account at PhotoShelter, and other prizes.

EP is also pleased to announce that our guest judges for the 2009 Grants include Laurie Kratochvil, former Director of Photography at Rolling Stone and InStyle, aphotoeditor.com Rob Haggart, former Director of Photography at Men’s Journal and Outside and Robert Mansfield, Art Director of Forbes.

Get the full details here: http://www.editorialphoto.com/epedu and please feel free to forward this message to any full time student who may be eligible, or to teachers and staff of eligible photography programs. Good luck to all the entrants!
—
Editorial Photographers [EP] is a non-profit, mutual benefit organization of working and emerging photographers, educators, and students who participate in the field of editorial photography.  EP’s mission is to raise awareness of proper business practices among photographers, and to advocate for contracts and terms that allow both creators and users of editorial photography to profit and prosper.  To apply for membership in EP, please visit http://www.editorialphoto.com/register .

Brian Smith – The Future of Editorial Photography
May 12th Time: Social hour & Food: 6:00; Program: 7:00
Location: EP Levine, 23 Drydock Ave, Boston MA 02210
617-951-1499

Editorial Photography is undergoing rapid change, yet the death of magazine photography has been greatly exaggerated. Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Brian Smith, President of Editorial Photographers, will discuss how to maximize the creative and commercial rewards while avoiding bad contracts, stagnant rates and rights-gobbling appetites of multinational media corporations. Smith will discuss the need to charge properly for the time and expense of digital capture and processing and why photographers and agencies may be to blame for unreasonably low caps that some magazines that some magazines have placed on digital fees. Photographers, when united, have been able to affect positive change to the industry for fair contracts paying higher fees and space usage and how photographers unwilling to turn down bad deals can send it all tumbling down.

Seminar Topics:
• How to get and keep the attention of photo editors and art directors at top magazines
• How production value can make your work stand out
• What are the best things you can do in a slow economy • How to maximize re-licensing, syndication and reprint revenue
• How will the shift to online content will affect rates
• What you should know about editorial that nobody told you

EP President Brian Smith’s first magazine photograph appeared in Life Magazine when he was a 20 year-old student at the University of Missouri. Five years later he won the Pulitzer for photographs of the Los Angeles Olympics. Based in Miami Beach, his work has won awards in World Press Photo, American Photo, Pictures of the Year and Communication Arts Competitions and has appeared on hundreds of magazine covers including Time, Forbes, Business Week, Sports Illustrated, and New York Magazine. Smith is a Sony Artisan of Imagery. His work can be seen at: www.briansmith.com

This Thursday April 30th, 2009 I will speak about the future of Editorial Photography. Come learn about all my secrets for lighting and hear the stories of how I approach my photography assignments.  I will discuss my latest photo shoot of 85 celebrities for The Creative Coalition and how I produced the shoot.  The location is Power Plant Productions, 230 North 2nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106.  Come early for a good seat!

Editorial Photography is undergoing rapid change, yet the death of magazine photography has been greatly exaggerated. Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Brian Smith, President of Editorial Photographers, will discuss how to maximize the creative and commercial rewards while avoiding bad contracts, stagnant rates and rights-gobbling appetites of multinational media corporations.

Smith will discuss the need to charge properly for the time and expense of digital capture and processing and why photographers and agencies may be to blame for unreasonably low caps that some magazines that some magazines have placed on digital fees. Photographers, when united, have been able to affect positive change to the industry for fair contracts paying higher fees and space usage and how photographers unwilling to turn down bad deals can send it all tumbling down.

Seminar Topics:
• How to get and keep the attention of photo editors and art directors at top magazines
• How production value can make your work stand out
• What are the best things you can do in a slow economy
• How to maximize re-licensing, syndication and reprint revenue • How will the shift to online content will affect rates
• What you should know about editorial that nobody told you

Thursday, April 30th, 2009, 7 PM
Location:  Power Plant Productions
230 North 2nd Street Philadelphia, PA 19106
Powerplantproductions.com

I hope to see you all in Philadelphia!

Brian Smith

In an effort to recognize and support emerging editorial photographers, EP is pleased to announce our Second Annual EP Education Grants student photo competition!

New this year, two additional cash prizes of $1000 each, for a total of seven available $1000 awards courtesy of EP and Blinkbid!

Awards will be granted to each of seven outstanding full time photography students. Winners will each receive the following items courtesy of EP, BlinkBid, and several other industry sponsors:

* A $1000 check to further their photographic career
* ThinkTank Urban Disguise 30 camera bag
* Blinkbid Software
* One-year EP membership with winning entries shown on the EP website
* One-year Subscription on Livebooks:Edu
* John Harrington’s book, “Best Business Practices for Photographers”

The panel of contest judges will include EP Board Members and several Guest Judges who will be announced shortly.

Eligible contestants must be enrolled in an accredited, full time college photography program in the U.S. or Canada during the 2008-2009 year, and previous winners are not eligible to win again. All entries must be complete by 12:01am on Saturday, May 16, 2009, so don’t delay!

Get the full details here: http://www.editorialphoto.com/epedu and please feel free to forward these details to any full time student who may be eligible, or to teachers and staff of eligible photography programs. Good luck to all the entrants!