via John Nack on Adobe:.
Ask Anything – What does a Treatment look like?
Former Art Buyers and current photography consultants Amanda Sosa Stone and Suzanne Sease have agreed to take anonymous questions from photographers and not only give their expert advice but put it out to a wide range of photographers, reps and art buyers to gather a variety of opinions. The goal with this column is to solicit honest questions and answers through anonymity.
Question:
Certainly others, along with myself, would like to see your Ask Anything series cover the topic of treatments in great detail. Amanda and Suzanne may have visual insight into this they could share.
Are these treatments formal? Scattered thoughts through email? A conference call related to, “This is how I will make your pictures…”?
I’ve searched fairly well with Google and found very little on the topic. For many photographers, the existence of treatments will be new, especially with how they’ll go down when the big job calls.
From Amanda and Suzanne:
We have a joint client who does the most amazing treatments before any photo shoot. The Rhoads have been very kind to let us show you a treatment they submit to every client. And since so many photographers do not create these, we reached out to our friends to get their take on the importance of a treatment.
We sent the treatment to art producers and art directors. Here is their response:
Senior Art Producer – International Ad Agency
love a treatment, get them all the time, it really helps. with everything being so literal now, the vision from the photographer really helps. directors do it all the time, with the lines blurring still guys are doing this as well.
Art Producer – Smaller Ad Agency
This is usually along the lines of what I’m working on to be prepared for a pre-pro if I’m producing. (If the photographer has their own producer I’m expecting them to put this together for the pre-pro.) I have mixed feelings about it. My control-freak nature would most likely make me feel like I’d need to make tweaks to it and use my client’s typeface, logo, etc; but on the other hand if a bulk of this work is done, it for sure helps me out. I guess it wouldn’t make or break the deal for me.
Senior Art Producer – Large NYC Based International Agency
I think this is visually fabulous. There’s all kinds of clients and all kinds of needs depending on the client want when it comes to pre-pro books. This is evidently a fashion pre-pro treatment. Not to say that they don’t have all the same needs. So below is what I love and what I think is missing.
I like
Concept – I like knowing what the concept or creative treatment is.
Cast- I need to see photo’s not just names.
Setting- I need to see location pictures.
Inspiration/Styling – wardrobe/hair samples – great mood board
Location Shots/Bar & Hotel – great mood board
The following is some of the things that are missing. Now these maybe things that are separate from the pre-pro book. It all depends On how the photographer is handling it. I think of the pre-pro book
Missing
Clients name,
Layouts,
Call Sheet/Contact Info.
I think of a Pre-Pro Book as bible…I want any and everything in it. When we’re on shoot’s we really cling to it. This being a fashion shoot
It maybe just enough. Not for my clients or account teams.
Senior Art Producer – International Ad Agency
For large shoots, we absolutely expect treatments from photographers. Some are quite elaborate, others are simple like this one.
Side note: presentation decks (usually PowerPoint pdfs or printouts) have become extremely important in selling through ideas. We would use the treatment in a presentation deck for what we call a “pre-bid” meeting, which is the meeting with the client in which we bring our client up to speed with what we’re thinking regarding photographer choices and other details prior to actually estimating and producing.
Pre-pro decks have become very elaborate because of the need to outline every single detail prior to shooting.
To Summarize:
You heard it directly from their mouths. Treatments are important and often crucial to the success of a shoot. It helps everyone get on the same page visually. We speak visually, so should your treatments. Please note the difference between the treatment as a whole and a pre-pro book. The pre-pro book contains everything everyone needs for the shoot, client name, details of all the people involved and everyone’s contact info, the schedule of the day, etc…including the treatment of visual direction. We recommend the treatment be submitted during the pre-pro meeting as an added bonus to the shoot and to make sure everyone is seeing eye to eye.
If you want more insight from Amanda and Suzanne you can contact them directly (here and here) or tune in once a week or so for more of “Ask Anything.”
You can’t ever coast and you can’t ever quit
So the biggest challenge was really after twenty some odd years of hard work and devotion and believing I had achieved some level of status and respect in this industry, I suddenly found myself having to promote myself, and market myself, and work as hard as I did when I first started… You can’t ever coast and you can’t ever quit. But even when the economic situation isn’t as disastrous as it was last year, it’s improved dramatically since then, I still find that apart from the economy, I still have 5000 new photographers to compete against at any given time.
It’s inevitable that we’re going to end up there
That’s what we’re heading towards. If you go anywhere in Asia, or just in Times Square, so many of the billboards are moving now. So, if it gets to the point where we are all shooting with things like the RED camera then we can be shooting the moving content and be extracting stills for when we need the stills. That’s why I think it’s inevitable that we’re going to end up there.
How Do You Go About Looking For Work Shooting Annual Reports?
I received the following question from one of my readers:
I have a question for you. I got hired to photograph an annual report for a nonprofit company called [Redacted]. I got the gig through an organization called Taproot Foundation which is an organization whose goal is to link up creative professional with non-profits and such to work on pro-bono projects. This is going to be my first annual report shoot and I am very excited about it. I think that this may be a career path that I would like to pursue. Do you have any idea how to go about looking for work shooting annual reports? I haven’t the slightest idea where to start. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much.
I noticed a few weeks back that Michael Edwards published images from an Annual Review shoot on his blog tellmewherethisis.com, so I put the question to him.
Here’s what he had to say about it:
I can tell you that my experience shooting the Annual Review for Highbridge Capitol Management was very rewarding. I was able to participate from the very beginning, working closely with the designers, writers, and the marketing department. Together we came up with a visual concept that would illustrate what the firm is all about. This is unusual for me, as I’m often hired for editorial work based on my photographic style. With this project, I actually adjusted my style to suit their needs, so it was fresh for me and I think the results were pleasantly different from other annuals.
The client is absolutely thrilled with the final product and has been showing it off to others in their industry. So hopefully I will be shooting the next one, and perhaps pick up some new clients along the way.
This is the interesting part. I actually first came in touch with Highbridge through an editorial assignment for Institutional Investor Magazine. The budgets are tight there, but they have given me interesting assignments, so I always try to make it work. Once I was up at Highbridge, I got to know the folks there and they got to know me. Since hedge funds don’t typically produce annuals, they did not have a lot of experience with photographers. This gave me an opportunity to let them know what I could do for them, and the timing worked out perfectly.
As for advice to your readers questions, I would say a few things. First off, you have to look for opportunities wherever you can. Six magazines that I shot for regularly closed last year. The industry is going through some painful changes right now and one has to be resourceful. Also, once I had the job, it was great to push things in a new direction…”off brand” if you will. I put away the lights and took a new approach that I had been shooting a lot of personal work with, but had not fully realized with my commercial work. This kept the shoot very new and exciting for both me and the client. Word of mouth will be your best friend in this realm, so if you nail one annual, chances are you will have an opportunity to do another.
Defending Big Record Companies
I was listening to the Adam Carolla Podcast a few weeks back and he had the band O.K. GO on the show. They had recently split up with their record label EMI (Billboard story) so it was interesting to hear their frontman Damian Kulash defend big record labels. I’d never really thought much about this but it really made sense to me so I wrote it down:
What record labels are really good for is essentially risk aggregation. It’s a very small percentage of bands that get to the level of being signed and even of those people who’ve gotten past that very high bar only about 5 percent succeed. So, 19 out of 20 fail. If it was your own money, you would be a moron to spend it, because there’s a 95 percent chance that money’s not going to come back even if you’re already at the level that record labels want to sign you.
So, the only way people can make that bet is to conglomerate all of them. You sign 100 band and assume 5 of them are going to succeed and the other 95 fail you just need to make enough back from those 5, which is why record contracts are so onerous in the first place for successful artists, because the money you are now making is paying for the other 95 percent who failed.
Somebody needs to be doing that risk aggregation unless we only want the independently wealthy who are artists.
When you think about it in terms of magazines and newspapers, because all the stories are packaged together they can afford to take chances and to have a few misses in there. And, that’s probably my biggest complaint about them as well. They stopped taking advantage of their unique ability to swing for the fences and whiff a few once in awhile.
AFP Steals Photographers Haiti Images Then Sues Him
Ok, this one is strange but follow me for a moment because this could be a big case for photographers.
Haitian Photographer Daniel Morel was in Port au Prince when the earthquake struck and captured some of the first images of the destruction that he then transmitted out. An amazing effort was made by Daniel to get the images out under the circumstances and he used Twitter to do it.
APF (Agence France Presse) found the images after another twitter user stole them from Daniel’s account. APF download the images and distributed them with that other users name in the credit. The images appeared on newspapers world-wide.
Daniel went after AFP, Getty and those who used the images for copyright infringement. AFP is apparently suing Daniel for “antagonistic assertion of rights” because of the way he pursued the copyright infringers using attorney Barbara Hoffman.
You can read AFP’s complaint and Morel’s answer over on Dan Kennedy’s, Media Nation. I originally found the story on 100 Eyes Blog.
What’s interesting is that AFP is claiming the Twitter TOS, where he gives Twitter “a nonexclusive license to use his photographs” gives them the same right. Not sure how they came to this leap of faith where images distributed by twitter can be printed on the front pages of newspapers, but we will soon see what the court thinks about it. I’m also surprised that they didn’t go for a fair use defense. The courts have ruled both ways when newsworthy images are used without permission and generally news organizations will place getting the images in front of their viewers well before clearing the rights. You can read more about that on the Photo Attorney blog (here) where Carolyn writes “it’s clear that the unauthorized use of a photograph is much more likely to be deemed a fair use when the photograph itself is newsworthy.”
What’s clear is that professional photographers need a method for releasing images in these types of situations and that AFP is used to bullying citizens when swiping images from social networks to distribute over the wire and when they ran into a pro they got the horns.
UPDATE: Getting more interesting. Images uploaded to TwitPic and linked in twitter. TwitPic has a T&C that says © remains with the photographer. Story here: http://www.1854.eu/2010/04/agence_france_presses_slap_to.html
National Magazine Award Winners In Photography
Winning publications with the words “New York” in the title: New York (4 awards), The New Yorker (3 awards), The New York Times Magazine (1 award): 8 — via The Fix
PHOTOGRAPHY / PRINT
Honors the effectiveness of photography, photojournalism and photo-illustration in support of the editorial mission of the magazine
Winner: Vanity Fair: Graydon Carter, Editor for March, September, November Issues
Finalists:
* GQ
* National Geographic
* The New York Times Style Magazine
* Vogue
PHOTOJOURNALISM
Recognizes the informative photographic documentation of an event or subject
Finalists:
* Foreign Policy
* National Geographic
* New York
* Virginia Quarterly Review
* Time
PHOTO PORTFOLIO
Honors creative photography and photo illustration, including portraiture
Winner: The New Yorker: David Remnick, Editor for “Portraits of Power,” photographs by Platon, December 7
Finalists:
* National Geographic
* New York
* Out
* W
The rest of the winners can be found (here).
The Publisher – Henry Luce
Halberstam described Luce as part hick, noting that “our best editors have always been at least partly hick, everything is new and fresh and possible for them, they take nothing for granted.” Luce’s almost childish curiosity and wonder was the redeeming genius of his magazines.
via NYTimes.com.
Ellies Live – ASME Awards
Ask Anything – Art Buyer Speed Questions
Former Art Buyers and current photography consultants Amanda Sosa Stone and Suzanne Sease have agreed to take anonymous questions from photographers and not only give their expert advice but put it out to a wide range of photographers, reps and art buyers to gather a variety of opinions. The goal with this column is to solicit honest questions and answers through anonymity.
Amanda and Suzanne– Rob presented us with questions that everyone had asked awhile back when he put out a request on the blog and we were honored to sit down with Kat Dalager, Manager of Print Production at Campbell Mithun in Minneapolis, and review these with her. We thought sitting down with someone who is in the trenches and who is so giving to our industry was the best way to address these. Not only were her answers truly authentic, but so insightful. ENJOY. Thank you Kat!
Who really holds the balance of power in deciding on a photographer –the creatives, the client or the art buyer? (I want to know how much influence the AB has on the decision making process, and how often the client vetoes an Agency’s recommendation — my hunch is that Art Directors have their opinion on who they want to work with and then they push to get that photog approved, but sometimes the client will opt for a “safer” or “cheaper” option)
Overall, the differences in the advertising world over even just a few years ago is the compression that’s happening because of the economy. Art Buyers are often the first to be let go from an agency, which means ADs have to do that work on top of doing the work of the other ADs who have been let go. Time crunches are a big issue, so convenience and efficiency are huge determining factors. On the other hand, slashed budgets also mean that with fewer original shoots taking place, so it’s important for ADs to produce work that can replenish their portfolio.
“Integrated productions” are becoming the norm. The ability to capture “assets,” both still and moving, in the course of one shoot is increasingly important. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the photographer has to capture both still and moving themselves, but at the very least, they must think beyond the traditional print mediums when approaching a shoot. At times they may have to shoot side-by-side or concurrently with a TV production.
The long answer is: it all depends.
There are some ADs who insist on using either someone they know or someone they’ve always wanted to work with, whether or not they are right for the project. It’s quick, it’s easy.
Others absolutely rely on the ABs to do the legwork and bring possible shooters to their attention. More often, it’s a collaborative process, which is what I prefer.
I find that if legwork is done up front and if the photographer meets the budget, then AEs and clients don’t have issues with the photographer selection.
How do ABs really decide on who gets to bid on a job — is there much thought and hunting and researching to find the “right” photographers or (due to time constraints and busy workloads) is it mostly just going back to who they already know (be it the photographer or a Photo Agency)?
There is safety and convenience going with known commodities, but I still spend a LOT of time researching new photographers and new ways to approach shoots in order to fulfull the creative vision as well as the budget. Other factors that influence photographer selection:
* Photographer or agent willingness to work with the AB in finding solutions to tight budgets
* Having capable producers
* Ability to adapt to constantly changing shoot parameters
* Skill set: do they shoot motion as well as still? Can they work side-by-side with a TV crew?
How often does an AB get to recommend photographers to the creative team vs the creative team telling the AB who they like? (Just curious to know how much Art Directors have their finger on the pulse of photographers and illustrators these days as they used to respect these crafts and love working with talented artists as opposed to just bringing in a supplier.)
see first answer above.
At a national level, it’s seldom about just bringing in a supplier. No one wants to come away with shots that aren’t portfolio-worthy, and with fewer opportunities to expand portfolios, no one wants to take that risk with even simple shots. The price of entry is that the photographer is capable of taking decent photographs, otherwise they won’t even be considered.
Again, it all depends on the individual AD. Some are great at knowing who’s out there, others simply rely on the ABs for resources. Sometimes it’s a photographer or agent simply being at the right place at the right time.
In choosing photographers, how often do they encounter the “red car” scenario? (ie trying to find a photographer that has shot the almost exact same layout before — not just any car, but a red car — to reassure or please the client).
I was fortunate that I never worked with creatives that didn’t have vision.
I have heard of this and it surprises me.
I just witnessed this the other day. I swear that the AD chose the photographer based on the number of images that looked the most like her layouts. I certainly don’t know that it was conscious, but it took place nonetheless. It doesn’t happen often, and I have to say that it happens most with less creative ADs.
Who makes final decisions most about photography at your agency?
Please arrange the following in order from those who make the most decisions to those who make the least:
Managing Art Buyer, Art Buyer, Group Creative Director, Creative Director, Senior Art Director, Art Director, Graphic Designer, Print Production
In my experiences, several people are involved in the final decision. In order of “pull”:
Group Creative Director
Creative Director
Art Director (any level)
Art Buyer
Account Service
How much does the Beauty Contest Conference Call play into who gets awarded the job? You call each of the three, and let each estimating photographer walk you through how he/she would approach/plan/tackle the job?
It’s HUGE. Just like director’s treatments, this call defines a photographer’s approach to a project. It’s not all about money, but about how they can make it happen (see above bullet pointed list). The conversation can quickly reveal if a photographer can put together a great website and/or portfolio, but doesn’t have the chops to pull together the shoot.
Why do some ABs not like to share who else is being considered for a job? Do they understand why it’s something we like to know? Personally I have never understood this but have found when they won’t divulge the information it is because the playing field is not even.
Because it can come back to bite us because there are many unprofessional professional photographers out there. I’ve heard of several instances where the rep or photographer actually called the other photographer and reamed them out for undercutting them or to dig for information. In turn, that creates bad feelings with the photographer which can impact the shoot. As you know, much about shooting is psychological and putting a photographer in a bad place before even clicking the shutter can be extremely detrimental.
There are also some ABs who feel these conversations between photographers can lead to price fixing behind the scenes. (Note: I personally don’t feel this way, but if I ever heard that one of the bidding photographers contacted the winning photographer and gave them a hard time, I would never bid with them again.)
Talent is obviously not the only criteria. Others could be:
1- security (you hire that studio because you know them, have worked with them before, or they are renowned, so a. you know the job will be done in full respect of time and budget and b. if not, no one will ask you ‘why the hell did you hire them?’)
2- money (they are good and not too expensive)
3- additional services (large studio just around the corner, e-capabilities such as real time ftp posting or high class capabilities in formatting, retouching, and digitally enhancing the pictures)
Do you agree with this point of view? If so, can you order this list?
1- This is true because reputation in this business is key. On big campaigns there is a lot of money riding on the photographer and the studio so production is so crucial. So when a photographer has a great reputation with that, buyers will want to work with them.
2- I have heard of big names offering lower fees these days.
I think it would be in the order you have it.
Why do art buyers worry more about having eight people from the agency on a shoot that only requires an art director and an account executive? Why so much focus on saving money on the creative but blowing up the budget making it a vacation for the agency.
Dear God, if photographers think that taking two weeks away from my family to live out of a suitcase in a hotel room, work 20 hour days and miss the school play for the third time in a row is desirable, then I don’t know how to answer this.
Not to say that there are some people who are not good at their jobs and do not function very well during shoots, but exactly as you describe, each person serves a role. I can’t help with the production if I am taking care of the client. Would the photographer prefer that there’s no one there to keep the client occupied and away from looking over their shoulder? Any art producer worth their weight is an essential liaison between the photographer’s team and the agency’s team.
Where do they most often look to find talent for assignments? Workbook, WB online, At-edge, At-edge online, Photo Serve, Archive, CA, PDN? PDN online, Blackbook, Altpick, etc?
I save links. We look everywhere. Workbook, photoserve and still some print. Award shows are good, and many are international and don’t apply to us.
What’s the best way to gain your trust?
Be totally honest!!
What are some red flags that someone is not being professional or trustworthy (credibility and ethics).
When someone tells me they can do something that they can’t or have never – it will hurt my credibility.
More answers from a casual conversation of questions:
Photographers are always complaining about right and usage, what do you have to say?
It makes me laugh when a photographers says that they don’t give away rights – but let’s be honest – I have seen many photographers bragging what they don’t do – but I have negotiated many photographers to a rate that goes against what one’s preach.
How much does region influence your decision to hire a photographer?
Doesn’t have anything to do with us. When you are at that National level. If you are regional client is can matter. We shoot out of the country a lot (opposite seasons) – and we are taking a lot of American photographers out of the country.
Talent pools – are there good talent pools outside of this country (example South Africa).
AMAZING.
Is being bilingual important.
It helps, but if you are not, be sure your producer is.
Who negotiates Video – Broadcast or Art Buying ?
I work together with Broadcast producer to blend numbers (but if falls under broadcast to follow procedure like unions) – blending consolidates costs – so it’s efficient.
Is print dead?
We don’t call it print anymore. We call it still imagery (used in interactive, printed media, etc…) and motion.
Are you using still from motion?
Shooting with a red camera – drag stills from it. A recent job I was able to blow up a still from a red camera at 1,000% and it held up beautifully (in store size). Red camera is a very high def video camera.
Virtual Electronic portfolios – how do you feel about them?
People love that personal attention. Use the subject line wisely – example “Shoe Photographer” so it connects.
Portfolios on a iPad?
I have not seen it but I can’t wait. Customization of the cover will be able to be branded which will allow your presentation to wow.
How do you feel about the idea of an Universal Estimate form?
I wouldn’t mind that at all. I have always encouraged it – the ASMP form is a wonderful form. I love BlinkBid too.
What looks are popular, dying and what looks would you avoid?
really punchy is dying
I wouldn’t avoid anything else
The NON produced look is a classic
Funny will be classic as well – as long as the context fits.
Other trends you see?
Total Library buyouts are very popular these days.
How often are you buying stock?
Sometimes- the reason I would use it would be because of lack of access to a specific location.
Are willing to take a chance on someone fresh?
Yes. If I believe in the photographer – I am happy to educate them on our usage or what we need.
Social Networks?
I use Facebook and Twitter. A lot!
Retouching?
We do it in house – but we might use the photographer depending on their skills and the project.
Digital capture vs. RAW?
We don’t use raw…we use cleaned up images. If we do a library we expect no clean up.
What’s an experience with working with a young or fresh talent?
I was once working with the photographer on an estimate and after talking I knew he was not as skilled in production and was not ready just yet for that level. I was honest with their newly signed rep.
Favorite type of e-promo?
File size is small. I don’t want to scroll down and I won’t. Remember I am on a laptop.
Website – if a site takes 20 seconds to upload?
I will bail – I don’t have time – be smart.
How do you feel about template sites?
Template sites like aphotofolio, livebooks and neonsky are perfect. Some flash sites that are difficult to navigate or slow to load don’t work for me.
Portfolio showings?
You need to have a NAME to get portfolio showings (meaning – a large showing with more than one person). I can’t book individual meetings often, because – this is what I am looking forward to an iPad. PDF portfolios – one thing about that I want to note – on a website I can click on what I want to see…when you have a controlled electronic portfolio other than a website a thumbnail view on the First page should be thumbnails of what is in the book – so I can see what I am about to view – because if the first 6 pages isn’t what I want to see – I know something is in there, because I saw it on the thumbnail page first.
To Summarize: After spending time with Kat, we agreed, you can never stop learning (as we learned new things today as well) and you have to be open to hear and absorb how quickly the market changes from day to day.
If you want more insight from Amanda and Suzanne you can contact them directly (here and here) or tune in once a week or so for more of “Ask Anything.”
When the Publishing Industry Survives, Will You Still Have a Job in Publishing?
The truth is that our industry is actually headed for the next golden age of publishing; I just cannot promise you that everyone who reads this will be part of that future
via, Publishing Executive.
iPad – Magazine Savior, Portfolio Replacement Or A Complete Waste Of Time?
The iPad has the potential to save the magazine industry, may become an important marketing tool for photographers but is a complete waste of time (good for consumers, bad for work).
A lot of ink has been spilled over the anticipation, launch and criticism/joy over the iPad and now that the dust has settled I wanted to offer my own take on the device.
For Work
My first thought with the device out to the box was to use it as a way to get work done when not at my desk. I ran into two major problems with this. 1. It’s difficult to carry around because there’s no handle and it doesn’t fit in your grip so well. 2. It sucks to type on and if you spend all day typing emails like most people these days, you will add hours to your work day trying to type on this thing. So, basically it’s worthless for work. I can’t imagine a single photo editor using one and given the fact that most businesses are many years behind in even updating browsers it’s unlikely in a corporate setting it will be used for anything except testing.
Another big issue with using something like this for work is how bad the web surfing is. I don’t find it to be very quick online, the size of the screen compared to the real estate most sites are using causes lots of problems and lack of support for flash makes the online experience full of holes. Now, I really don’t want to debate the flash vs html in the comments here but I think there’s a lot of misinformation about the two. First of all flash is not going anywhere online. Here’s a couple articles that address this (Giz Explains: Why HTML5 Isn’t Going to Save the Internet, The Future of Web Content – HTML5, Flash & Mobile Apps) and most experts seem to agree (“I’m often asked “Will HTML5 replace Flash?” on the Web. The quick answer is no.” – TechCrunch story) that flash cannot be unseated as one of the standards widely adopted languages on the web.
One point that seems to get everyone fired up is html vs. flash in building websites. I have my own reasons for choosing flash, but I’ve seen horrible and awesome in both so there’s really no point in debating it. Each has its benefits. I will say that flash changed the website viewing experience for photo editors which up until Livebooks started building sites was excruciatingly horrible. I’m on record saying how much I loved flash sites as a photo editor way before I got into building websites. I’ve seen some excellent html sites but the ease at which you can build a site in html leads to many, many more diy’ers creating junk and leading to an overall feeling among photo editors that html sites were low class. One thing worth noting from all the hubbub about the two languages: “few people realize is that while H.264 appears to be an open and free standard, in actuality it is not. It is a standard provided by the MPEG-LA consortsia, and is governed by commercial and IP restrictions, which will in 2014 impose a royalty and license requirement on all users of the technology.” So, there’s more trouble brewing for video down the road.
For Looking At Pictures
The iPad is awesome for thumbing through images. The guardian eyewitness app, which showcases some of the best news photography is an excellent example of this. You scroll through a selection of images with the flip of a finger and can turn the captions on with a single tap. Horizontal images seem to look the best and holding it in the orientation feels natural to me and seems easier to do the swipes and taps.
The big question on everyone’s mind seems to be how can a device that shows off photography this well be used to land jobs. Since I don’t think you will find many PE’s and AB’s using one it’s more likely that a photographer will have one at a meeting or in their kit on set to show additional work. And, I think for showing off multimedia this will become the de facto portfolio as it seems nearly perfect for that. Some people have suggested shipping them around like portfolios and I’m not sure that’s such a great idea. You’ve got to worry about the battery if the thing is accidentally turned on, you’ve got to prepare for people who are technologically inept and I don’t think there’s a way to take over the device and not allow other uses besides looking at the portfolio. The other problem with an iPad as a portfolio is how hard it is for people to change their ways. Someone who is used to great success finding the perfect photographer for a project by calling in books is not going to trust a new method immediately. Also, you’ve got a pretty small screen compared to most books as Zack Seckler over on The FStop points out:
I got in touch with four art buyers at top ad agencies and they all seem to agree that print still offers a superior viewing experience. A glowing screen just doesn’t compare to big beautifully printed images on luxurious paper. If a client is looking through books, deciding to whom to grant a big budget project, a 9″ screen won’t hold up well against rich detailed prints nearly twice it’s size.
Check Zack showing off the image and video capabilities:
Sweet!
For The Magazine Industry
I’m pretty optimistic on the iPad as a savior of sorts for magazines and newspapers. First off, it really is a consumer device. Horrible for work, but awesome for watching videos, looking at images and reading text. It doesn’t hurt that surfing the web is not so great too. In fact a closed environment like this is perfect for publishers (a closed system also prevents content from getting ripped off). And, here’s the thing, this is what magazine people do best, package content. The challenge is whether they can create a workflow and design template that allows them to create stories that flow from print to all the different devices that will soon be available. Dell is building a 5 inch tablet (here), Google has one (here) and European publishers are backing a WePad of sorts (here).
I checked out several magazines on the device and my favorite by a long shot was Time. The Popular Science app has been receiving the most buzz because they set out to redefine how a magazine behaves on the pad and take advantage of the technology but I found myself gravitating towards a traditional magazine experience only enhanced. Time nailed the navigation, you swipe sideways to advance through the issue you swipe up to read more of a story, you rotate the device to activate some of the advertising. The photography looks stunning and the packaging of content is perfect for something like this. The other magazines I checked out on the iPad: Dwell, Outside and the Zinio Reader magazines were a disappointment and amounted to not much more than scanned pages. I’m guessing everyone is cautious to see if the device actually gains traction.
Here’s an overview of the Art Direction by Brad Colbow:
The linchpin to the whole deal for magazines is reach of the device. All of the magazines have been roundly criticized for their pricing which is something I’ve touched on before. It’s sort of like magazine companies saying you have to install a $500 newsstand in your house and then pay them $5 an issue to deliver magazines. It seems absurd to me, but I wonder if someone will break ranks and show how many eyeballs you can attract with pricing. The WePad is looking to bundle with content so you essentially pay for subscriptions to major publishers and the pad comes free. This is the business model that will surely get these things in the hands of lots of people. Of course this all relies on advertisers responding to the traditional method of display advertising which will never be back to the levels it once was. I do think there’s more of an opportunity for consumers to be exposed to advertising in this situation and certainly this kind of advertising has the opportunity to be more interactive and interesting.
The iPad is perfect for those 15 minute to 1 hour interactions you love magazines for. If magazine publishers can figure out an efficient workflow, attractive pricing and the devices can reach critical mass we will have a savior on our hands.
The New BagNews
Michael Shaw launches a redesign of BagNews, one of my favorite blogs about photography:
“Our interest in ‘reading the pictures’ and revealing layers of political and social meaning remains stronger — and now, broader — than ever.”
He’s got an all star lineup of contributors too. Read about it (here).
Monocle Magazine, “it can’t be found anywhere else”
Excellent interview with the former founding Art Director of Monocle, Ken Leung over on Cultures In Between. Here’s an excerpt:
What has been Monocle’s distinguishable strengths and differentiated qualities from other titles? Does this also reflect the magazine’s resilience in the print industry?
I think Monocle stands out because it works harder than anyone else. Our stories and artwork are all mostly commissioned meaning it can’t be found anywhere else and that we have complete control over the visual style. We go to places nowhere else has covered and unearth new talents that no one else has discovered.
To me, Monocle’s “resilience” is unsurprising because people are always prepared to buy into a quality product.
Stages Of A Photographer
(click to see big at source)
2010 Guggenheim Fellows in Photography
Ask Anything – Editorial Late Fees, Mailer Response Rates and Pursuing Animal Photography
Former Art Buyers and current photography consultants Amanda Sosa Stone and Suzanne Sease have agreed to take anonymous questions from photographers and not only give their expert advice but put it out to a wide range of photographers, reps and art buyers to gather a variety of opinions. The goal with this column is to solicit honest questions and answers through anonymity.
Question 1: Editorial Late Fee
Is it possible to add late fee’s to editorial invoices? If so, what is considered standard or even acceptable? Would this even persuade them to pay within 30 days? It seems now, more than ever, that more and more magazines are dragging out payments 60+ days.. a few, even 90+ days. What can change this insane way of doing business?
Answers:
Established Editorial Photography Team:
We’ve had very few problems with our editorial clients. Every once in a while payment gets dragged out, but it’s usually because the editors are so short-handed that they forget to submit something or it bounces back from accounting for some insane reason and they’re not around to deal with it immediately. God forbid anyone from accounts payable email us directly if they need a W9 or something ;)
I guess we’ve been lucky. We have not resorted to forcing our editorial clients to agree to payment terms. We don’t think it would be very enforceable. We already feel like we’re walking a tightrope with these jobs. The photo editors who we are trying to build relationships with have no control over the other parts of their magazine. New clients get assumptions from us that things will go smoothly. If they are slow to pay or drag things out, we won’t accept future assignments from them. Simple as that.
We did an editorial assignment through Aurora back in November. We’re not represented by them, but we covered the job for a friend….kind of a last minute emergency. We just got paid today. We were about to send them to collections….it was getting really ugly.
SVP – Finance Major Editorial/Publishing Company:
Very few large companies will ever pay late fees on anything.
A better approach is to offer a slight discount for fast payment (i.e. – 2% if paid within 20 days). In effect, that becomes a positive incentive.
Amanda and Suzanne:
Read the terms and payment agreement of the company who is hiring you. Ask the questions about payment upfront and know what you are getting involved. Invoice the project immediately. Unfortunately it’s a leap of faith with a new publisher, you do not know what you are getting into until you do the shoot and wait for the check to be cut. But don’t be afraid to call up accounting and find out where your check is after 30 days.
Question 2: Marketing
Next month I’m sending the first in what will be a series of postcard promos, a first for me. I’ve done email promos in the past, and I have a sense for what industry standard open and click through rates are in the email world, but I don’t really have a sense for what response rates postcards generally yield. Clearly it’s easier to track response rates with opens and click through, but my plan is to include a trackable ‘call to action’ on the back of the postcard (visit this URL, give me a call, etc.) that will give me something to track. In Amanda & Suzanne’s experience, what would they recommend in terms of a system for tracking the success of a postcard campaign? Is there an accepted response rate range that would be considered the average for me to measure my success against, assuming that I’ll be sending a postcard every 1-2 months for the next year?
I ask because my photo industry mentors are on one of my shoulders these days, saying What you need is consistency, with postcards and emails and portal presence and portfolio showings; and on the other shoulder are my MBA-type business mentors, questioning my marketing budgets and asking me questions that I can’t answer, like What’s your expected return on investment for your postcard campaign?
Answer:
Amanda and Suzanne:
The first question we want to ask is how fabulous do your mailers look (feel free to send to us)? The mailers have to be dynamic, but of course you know this already. So assuming they are amazing you should see about 1% results of your contacts to your website. If you can send out consistently and continue marketing for a long period of time your mass marketing will deliver results in the long run, but we would recommend expecting no return for over 1 year. Can you risk that investment and understand your return is in educating your market right now? If you get work within the first year – you have won the marketing lotto. Not putting all your eggs in one basket–be sure to do more–you will get your best results from showing your portfolio either in person or electronically and connecting personally. Ps – never ask if you call for a meeting if they remember receiving your mailers, let them tell you.
To answer your question, if you get 1% of the total number of people to your site the day it’s received, you can rate your mailing a success.
We think to reach your audience in a better way you should send personalized e-mails, pick a hand full of people you would love to work with and send them a personalized e-mail with your e-promo. E.g. Cindy Hicks, The Martin Agency- Dear Cindy, I love the work you all have done for Geico, Wal-mart and Seiko. I would love to work with you all one day. Here is a link to my website. It shows you have done your research and is also utilizing your database in the most effective way.
Question 3: Animal Shooter
I am a recent graduate, and halfway into my college career, I discovered my passion for photography through shooting animals. I’ve won a few awards for my work, and have been given very positive feedback from my peers and teachers. I feel so strong about my work with animals, that I have decided to focus solely on this very narrow niche. Now I’m done with school, and I don’t know what to do with my work, or if my work is going to pay the bills! (right now, its not!) Currently, I am trying to get work through private clients photographing their pets. I’d eventually like to work for commercial clients, but don’t know how to go about getting those clients. I’d love to work with an agent, but know this isn’t the right time in my career for one- or is it? I’ve researched photographers who also shoot animals, and it seems they also cover other genres like kids and weddings. I’d like to focus on just my animals because this is my true passion, but am afraid of having all my eggs in one basket. Also, what city might I be most successful with this?
Answer:
Amanda and Suzanne:
Are you willing to do consumer? The Consumer will balance your waiting period to make it and help you build your portfolio. We would also shoot the consumer clients and produce them as you would for an advertising client – so you can build up your portfolio. Example: Milk Bone- Have the box and give it to your dog subject and see what they do. Have them in a fabulous kitchen with a doggie door (of course location scouting is crucial). Also find some animal trainers and wranglers and get them to shoot with. From checking our your site – you have something very cool going on with creature compositions. If you look at Amanda Jones who is strictly dogs and a few cats, Jeff Moore– dogs and kids- they have done a lot of consumer portraits but have been asked to shoot advertising assignments because they are specialist in their field. And then there are photographers like Steve Grubman, Nick Vedros, Karen Morgan and Craig Perman who have diversified to other genres so they are more likely to get advertising assignments since they don’t do consumer. Also, you may want to create a “buzz” with your work like doggie Gaga (www.jessefreidlin.com) he was mentioned on so many shows like The Today Show and Live with Regis and Kelly.
Call To Action: Health insurance for freelance photographers is killing us! We have been asked to do an article on the insurance business not only for health but business insurance as well. Please send us your struggles with insurance and any advice/remedies you have found that might help others out until 2014 switchover. Send to: amanda@sosastone.com
If you want more insight from Amanda and Suzanne you can contact them directly (here and here) or tune in once a week or so for more of “Ask Anything.”