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Remember This When You Pull That Lever Next Tuesday

Take A Moment, Write A Few Letters, Sign The Petition

Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act

Dear Copyright Advocate,
This letter is about a bill that has been introduced in the Senate that will combat online infringement of copyrighted works. It’s called the “Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act” or “COICA”. ASMP encourages you to sign a petition in favor of the bill.
Though some photographers have already done this, our efforts have not been enough.
The opponents of this bill have been active in mobilizing the masses to speak out against it. The result of their efforts is that it seems like the public is against this bill. Yet, we all hear everyday about how websites are illegally posting your creative works for others to take and how this affects your livelihood.
This bill would benefit all artists and creators! TAKE ACTION TODAY! Stand up for your rights!

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

1. Speak up on blogs and listservs. Artists who speak out in favor of the bill on a website are often verbally attacked. Musicians, photographers and other artists need your support on this effort. Post blogs and comments on your own websites or on websites where you see these attacks.
2. Contact your Senator and House Representative. Tell your congressional representatives to vote YES to the bill. Tell them your story and how piracy and infringement affect you.
   To find and email your Senator, go here.
   To find and email your House Representative, go here.
3. Tweet this: Stop online piracy of art, music, movies, books, all creative works. Vote yes to Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act #COICA
4. Facebook this: The U.S. Congress is debating a bill that could help millions of artists around the world. If passed, the bill would allow the government to target and shut down “internet sites dedicated to infringing activities” which are “primarily designed” to access unauthorized copyrighted material. Tell your representatives to vote YES to the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA).

WHAT IS THIS BILL ABOUT?

1. Check out this short video by independent filmmaker Ellen Seidler as she talks about how websites that are illegally hosting her movie are profiting. Yet, she is losing money. This bill will help shut down websites like these.
2. The bill will not target minor violations of copyright. It will target “internet sites dedicated to infringing activities” that are “primarily designed” to offer or provide access to copyrighted material “without the authorization of the copyright owner.”
3. The Attorney General will be able to request a court order to suspend the domain names of U.S.-based infringing websites. For non-U.S.-based websites, the Attorney General will be able to request a court order to require the ISPs to block the website. Credit card companies and networks providing ads to these sites will also suspend all activity with the infringing sites.
4. A list of all the domain names that are found to be infringing copyright protected content will be posted on a “publicly available Internet site, together with other relevant information, in order to inform the public.”

REMEMBER PILFERED MAGAZINE?
Last February we made you aware of Pilfered Magazine, an online magazine that freely took images from photographers without their permission and didn’t credit or compensate the photographers. Because of your emails, Tweets, and postings on blogs and Facebook, the magazine was shut down in a weekend and has never reopened.
It is important that we take collective action on this bill too. Pilfered is not the only website that hosts and offers infringing material. This bill will help remove other websites like Pilfered from the internet.
ONE VOI©E: SPEAK UP FOR CREATORS’ RIGHTS

Via Rob @ APE

Art Market Rules

Earlier this week, The Financial Times published a fascinating piece on Annie Leibovitz, her ongoing financial challenges and the international market for fine-art photography in general.
As one who is just now wading into the shallow end of the fine art-photography market, I found the piece to be educational, informative and very enlightening. The gist of the article focused on the disparity in value at auction of Leibovitz's amassed body of work - work considered to be far more commercial than the images of such fine-art photography notables & top auction earners Cindy Sherman, Andreas Gurskey, Herb Ritts, Bettina Rheims ( I Yher work!), Irving Penn and others. Sherman's work, for example, has fetched lofty prices at auction, as much & more than $2 Million while Annie's best price at auction, to date, as been £31,200 but more often is the case, according the the FT article, fetching prices this year in the single-figure thousands of dollars and some to have sold as low as several hundred.


The point taken from the story is that Annie, as she readily admits, was focused on her career and a well-know & arguably the best editorial & celebrity portrait photographer of her time. In the process, she ignored the fine-art market, auction houses & dealers... that is, until her free-spending ways caught up with her.

The problem is that, as Jeffrey Boloten, a managing director of the ArtInsight consultancy in London, puts it: “You do have to play by the art market rules.” That means working closely with auction houses and galleries and doing what they tell you, from making small limited editions of your prints to signing and marketing them adeptly.

Leibovitz has failed this test, at least until she got into her current straits, and her credibility among the movers, shakers and brokers of the art world is low. “She had very little interest in the art world for most of her career,” says Edwynn Houk, a gallery owner in New York who used to represent her. “She suffered from not caring about it, not paying enough attention.” 

 Read more here: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/76af3c7a-dbf2-11df-af09-00144feabdc0.html

(Thanks to Rob @ APE for the find)

Keywording... time consuming, tediously mind-numbing and oh so essential.


150 images prepped, sized, keyworded and uploaded to new stock agency this week. Lifestyle, scenic, food & more.


Finding things long forgotten. Cool... backgrounds, surfaces (see above) and more.


Decent print sale made last week at the resort artists' program, ships early next week. Printing more. Must be matted. Back for more on monday.


Agency proposal request, one of the BIG TWO & direct result of the H-lulu portfolio trip.


Retail Product shoot booked for 11/2.


Preproduction meetings set to begin in the next week or so for new T-Downs CD packaging. Gotta be better than last one. Big challenge.


Reconnected with old mate from high school. Long time, great guy!


Reconnected with old mate who disappeared to China & Asia. Long time, another great guy.


Stock Images available for direct licensing too. Contact me here: photoho@hawaiiantel.net


Surrounded by amateurs in disguise. Halloween costume suggestion #1: Be a Professional. No one will recognize you. Then try it the other 364 days. 


Publicist friend insists this is a backwater. She's never wrong.


Mainland leaves are turning orange, yellow, red. Chill in the air. Not here. Leaves stay green. It's hot.


Weekend got there fast.

Via

A couple of months ago, I wrote about my day spent bouncing off the reefs offshore in Waikiki. Now that the work is published, it is possible to reveal the mission and showcase the image selected by the assigning photo-editor.




Via Magazine, published in Northern California, Utah & elsewhere, sent me to Oahu to capture the action at the world renown surf school run by former world touring pro surfer Hans Hedeman. Hans was just reaching his prime back in the days when I was surfing on the East Coast prior to relocating to the islands and getting to meet him during the shoot day was an unexpected  bonus thrill. 


The goal of the shoot was to capture a dramatic image illustrating the surf lifestyle in a coastal city/urban environment, in this case - Honolulu.


A great day was enjoyed in the warm, clear waters of Waikiki... almost 8 hours in the brine as I worked the various surf lesson groups throughout the day. The image above was selected for publication.

View From Home - Scenes From The Road To You

Untitled ©2010

On Reflection Of The Distant Reflection ©2010