The Deadline Doth Approacheth...

Regular readers of this blog should recognize the name Leslie Burns Dell'Acqua, law student, photographer's business consultant and author of the always excellent Burns Auto Parts website & blog, a place where there is no information about cars, auto parts or anything even remotely automotive related. What you will find there is lots of helpful advice and information about the business of photography.

Lately, you will even find a little bit more... as a few weeks ago, Leslie began the first of what promises to be a series of fictitious editorial "assignments" to participate in. The first one I missed, regretfully, and centered on the theme "PEACE". On January 29th, the second of these "assignments" was announced. For this assignment, Leslie borrowed a news story on the current mortgage crisis and asks readers of her blog to submit photography to illustrate the article. Submissions must be emailed to Leslie by the 11:59PM, February 27th deadline. You can find the details and submission guidelines for this "assignment" by clicking HERE. I'd love to see some of our local Hawaii talent and readers of this blog participate, so get cracking... there's only 8 days left to turn in your submissions.

I promised myself, after missing the first assignment deadline, that I would make a concerted effort to turn in a photograph for the current assignment. In fact, I turned in two, designating the fishbowl shot as my "official" entry. As the article this assignment was based on opened with and continually mentioned the idea of mortgages being "underwater", I felt this image was more true to the story the assignment was based on. What fun it is to attempt to wrangle a live goldfish into position. Goldfish are certainly NOT one of God's more cooperative creatures. (Disclaimer: No goldfish were harmed in the execution of this photograph. This one swims happily in his little bowl beside me as I peck out this screed.)

Another phrase constantly being thrown around by the media these days is "mortgage meltdown", on which the second image is based. This one was also fun... trying to figure out how to best melt those tiny plastic Monopoly® houses. First attempts using a propane blow torch ended up blackening the melted plastic too drastically, I felt. I finally settled upon a Pyrex® baking dish, the bottom sprayed with WD-40 (to prevent the melted plastic from sticking... sort of worked). Various times were tested with nuking in the studio microwave until the desired "melts" were achieved... the longest nuke time being about 20 minutes for the full melt.

Editorial Pricing Now & In The Future... Shifting Sands

Photographer's consultant cum law student Leslie Burns-Dell'Acqua has published yet another timely blog post today, providing much food for thought for those of us providing images to editorial clients in this new age of digital media. With printing & paper costs going through the roof (not to mention the important trend of being viewed as "green"), rising postage costs, falling advertising revenues diminished readership of hard-copy print as more and more editorial consumers turn to online delivery of their favorite reads, the shape of editorial content delivery is now changing rapidly and in a big way.

The video posted here is from the folks that bring us Wired magazine and deals with the publication's new electronic publication geared towards users of the recently unveiled iPad.

At the Burns Auto Parts Blog, Leslie writes:

"More importantly, note how they talk about this change is (very possibly) the one that will result in an experience users will want to pay for. Wired isn’t going to be giving their work away for free, it sounds like, even though there will be plenty of ads in the iPad edition.

Also note how they are encouraging sharing the content via social media tools. I’m assuming this means clips and links, not wholesale shifting of the content, but whatever it is, it means that your images will be seen by more and more people."

Yes... there is a small upside here... increased exposure of your work. Does that outweigh the obvious downside of some potential loss of control of your image/content distribution? Only time will tell, I suppose.

The point of Leslie's entry today is that we need to look at editorial pricing models NOW... the future is upon us. The folks at Wired seem to think that users of this new interactive media environment will be willing to pay for this new, enhanced experience. They also go on to say that the electronic forms of their publication will also be chocked full of advertising, the traditional revenue stream of print publications. Publications around the globe today are struggling for survival and have embraced electronic publishing as a new method of delivering the goods to readers. Subscriptions for online versions of their content may just be the model for salvation. It is, however, another source of revenue and once the economic downturn abates, could result in profitability beyond what had been previously realized prior to the downturn.

Good points for consideration, dialog and discussion among those of us working in the editorial realm.

You can read the blog HERE. And be sure to check out the video from Wired too.It appears directly above this entry.

Real World Pricing Redux... A Retort

In response to the information regarding real world pricing provided by Rob Haggart at the A Photo Editor blog and that I point you to in my previous blog entry (see below), a rapid retort from photographer's consultant cum law-student Leslie Burns Dell'Acqua appeared at her Burns Auto Parts blog.

Not so much as a retort as it is a clarification and a plea for the development of some sort of rational system for pricing usage in advertising and client-direct areas of assignment bidding.

Leslie argues that some of the fees quoted in the estimates provided by Rob are far too low. I am in full agreement with her on this point. For example, one estimate provides a license for National USA only, unlimited use in all media, in perpetuity of 32 images for a total production & licensing fee of only $25k or roughly $782.25 per image, production expenses & creative fees included.

Leslie goes on to offer some suggestions on how to tackle this complicated issue and it's well worth a read. Find her post here. 

It's important to remember that the more information you arm yourself with before you put that pencil to paper, the better you will end up serving both yourself and your client(s). At the end of the assignment, you will feel compensated in a way that you are motivated to give your all during the production end of the process and won't walk away afterwards feeling undervalued. Even in this economy, savy art buyers are well aware of issues, legalities and costs of image production & licensing. Coming in far below reasonable expectations with your estimates might win you an assignment here & there, but in the long run it's also going to brand you as inexperienced & unable to rise to the challenge when the real rubber hits the road.

A Portrait & a Link

Today started with an early morning portrait session, a bank executive head-shot... straight forward, vanilla, color portrait of a smiling man in a suit (and aloha shirt just to be safe).

Fortunately, I left all the lighting set-up in place when a friend dropped by to share some wisdom & combustibles and I was able to beg, coerce and otherwise flog him into sitting down in front of the lens for a few minutes. A quick re-tweaking of the lights into a configuration a little less revealing and 15 minutes later, there was a very fun series of very expressive portraits, though I don't quite know exactly what it it they are expressing. Thanks to Ray Gooliak, musician, songwriter & recording artist for enduring my abuse & cajoling and contributing his considerable talents, wrinkles and follicle-challenged skull to yield the two images above.

On a completely different note, Leslie Burns-Dell'Acqua is a name that has appeared on this blog on several other occasions. Leslie is a photographer's business consultant of wide repute & publisher of the website Burns Auto Parts. This is not a place to find parts for your broken down jalopy. The website contains lots of interesting and very helpful materials, advice, books all pertaining to the business & marketing of commercial & editorial photography. You can also find a link to her "Super Premium Blog" and it is well worth a read.

Leslie is at it again. This time... over at the ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers) website, you will find a 25 minute video clip of a presentation Leslie made to ASMP members recently. You don't need to be a member to view the video... just click on the link here. In the video presentation, Ms. Burns Dell'Acqua discusses how to fine-tune your website and portfolio for bigger bang and better impact. Grab a cuppa and spend a few minutes of precious time watching the video. You'll be glad you did.