Author: Leslie

Seth Godin’s post today got me to thinking. In it he writes:

More and more, businesses and businesspeople talk about their rights.

It seems, though, that organizations and individuals that focus more on their responsibilities and less on their rights tend to outperform. [emphasis in original]

You’re responsible to your community, to your customers, to your employees and to your art. Serve them and the rights thing tends to take care of itself.

I know a lot of people are going to disagree with me about this, but I think that in many ways, he’s right.

Now, I’m not saying you should ignore your rights–not at all. You need to register your images and go after infringers, absolutely.

No, what I am saying is that I’ve noticed that those people who talk about their rights all the time, especially to their clients, are really rather off-putting. No one wants to get a lecture from a vendor. People want to hear good things from their vendors. They want to hear how you are going to solve their problems. They don’t want to hear what your problems are.

This goes hand in hand with being positive, especially when it comes to any interactions with your targets/clients. Don’t put yourself down, don’t talk about how you “lucked out” and got a shot. Don’t talk about how hard things have been or even how your kids have been sick. Basically, don’t talk about you.

Talk about them.

When you focus on your targets and their needs and wants, sure, you are going to talk about you a bit, but in the context of helping them.

The other side of Seth’s post, about responsibilities, is equally important. When I hear photographers having fits over indemnification clauses, my first thought is “why are you afraid to guarantee your work?” A well written indemnification clause in a contract is essentially saying “I am willing to back up my promise that this is my work, that I’m not infringing on anyone else’s rights, with a promise to pay for the legal costs if I screw up.” Giving a promise, a guarantee of your work, shouldn’t be a big issue and it does a lot to comfort your clients.

Rather than fight these clauses I’d suggest getting your lawyer to write a good one for you and then pointing it out to your clients! “In paragraph 4 I’m guaranteeing that my images will not infringe on anyone else’s rights, so you’re covered.”

By the way, if some third party did bring suit claiming you infringed on their work somehow with your images, well, that is why you carry E&O insurance.

My point is, no one like a whiner, and when you put your energy into reminding your clients about your rights you can come off sounding pretty whiny. But if you focus your energy instead on their needs and how you can solve their problems, you become a positive hero to them. That gets you projects and builds your reputation, in a very good way.

ASMP, along with other visual artist groups, is going after Google for its massive copyright infringement. Huzzah! This is great news for artists.

It’s a class action and is a very, very large undertaking. This won’t be cheap or easy, but it needs to be done and is being done for the benefit of all artists who are getting ripped off by Google, and similar organizations (“sharing” b.s.). Support your creative professional groups in this and let’s root for the home team here!

Go artists!

Time is getting tight… are you working on your submission for Assignment #3?

The March episode of the Creative Lube podcast is up and available for purchase. $8 per episode. This one is on your narrative.

If you enjoy it, you should subscribe for a year for $80 (a more than 16% savings off the per episode price).

Please note that subscriptions start on the date of purchase and do not include previously released episodes.

URGENT! The President wants to get input from creative pros! This is your opportunity to be heard about the importance of © in your life! Here is a pdf from the Copyright Alliance explaining things and telling you where to write: http://bit.ly/cjDZJt

Ah Spring. Yes, this assignment is about Spring, but not exactly as you may expect. Rather than say “make some image that represents Spring,” I want you to listen to, and watch, The LA Symphony performing Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and use that as your motivation to create an image.

Lots of you may have never heard this, some of you will know it, but I’m betting that relatively few of you know the backstory. This piece was shocking at its debut. Here is a very short explanation and here is another (both from NPR). Just something to give you some context as you listen and, perhaps, to fire your grey cells a bit more.

Here are the links:

Now clearly, this is a very free-form assignment. But I think it has a lot of potential for interpretation and results. You are going to have to think about this. No easy “here’s a pretty flower just ’cause it’s Spring” will do. And I think some of you may try to find an excuse to bail on this assignment. This one is challenging–there is no easy solution. For some of you, you are going to have to reach into yourselves a bit more to process enough to make something from this–especially if you don’t listen to music like this much.

It’s an amazing piece of music so at the very least you’ll get exposed to it. And music is very, very close to the hearts of many visual creatives–from my experience the vast majority of photographers (and designers, etc.) play some instrument. So even if you don’t like it, listen to it (over and over, as needed) so that you can appreciate it, even if it isn’t your thing. Art is that way–sometimes the aesthetic just doesn’t work for someone, but the thinking, the work, can still be admired and, thus, be inspirational.

So, here is the skinny: make an image that somehow expresses Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. It can be one particular movement, the whole, or the emotion it evokes in you… I leave the specifics up to you. And because this is so free-form, if you want to include in your email some of your thinking– understanding that I may share those with the results when I post them— that would be fine.

Due Date: FRIDAY 09 April 2010, by 11:59PM (PT)

Email your jpegs (no larger than 1200px on largest dimension, 72ppi) and please include your last name in the file name.

Finally, please share this assignment with your friends and colleagues. Illustrators and designers are welcome to submit as well! Tweet/FB/blog about this… let’s get the word out to get more people participating.

(Thanks Kc Ramsay for the heads up on this)

Short answer to your biz Qs: Be unique or go home.

Really interesting interview with Seth Godin on the (wedding) photo biz. Don’t let the “wedding” part of this fool you–what he says applies to all photogs in many, many ways.

(in case you forget what the assignment was, click here)

Rather than spend a lot of text talking about each image, I thought I’d just post them all (yes, all… lots of people who said they were going to participate didn’t, more later on that) and talk in general about the results. Btw, the crops on the thumbnails below are a WordPress default I can’t figure out how to change. The whole images are linked to the thumbs, uncropped, so look at those to see the work as intended by the photographers. Also, I posted two images each from two different photographers– don’t get used to this. The rules are going to have to be followed more tightly as we get more participants and that means one photo to a photog. But for now, let’s just look at everything. 🙂

The photographers, in order (L->R)

David Zaitz / Michelle Alger

Tony Novak-Clifford (both)

Justin Thornton / Ken & Lois Wilder (funny, the two last names here make a famous Am. playwright)

Kevin Halliburton / Jay Goodrich

Kelly Ng (both)

Rodney Yardley / Ryan Gibson

Adelio Trinidad / William Cardoza

First of all, I think you’ll notice that several people made images using the same basic subjects– that is, a fish bowl and toy house. This is not a bad thing! Just because several photographers thought of the same basic idea doesn’t mean there was a lack of creative thinking on their parts. When you are given an article to illustrate, finding something that communicates the major theme of the article to the masses will generate similar results. In fact, while some of the non-fishbowl images are great, a photo editor may not be thrilled with all of them as visual solutions because some of them weren’t as clear.

But even those that are similar aren’t the same. I have to say I have a fondness for Alger’s thumbs-up diver, but as I have said before, I have a warped sense of humor. And others went in very different directions, like Zaitz’ twisted homage to the famous Iwo Jima image. But I think everyone thought about the assignment, and that makes the work successful.

That being said, while only one photographer actually used text on the image(s), several sent explanatory notes. Here’s a hint: if you have to explain an image that goes with an article, it’s not strong enough (or, you don’t have enough confidence that the image is strong enough). Remember, the idea behind this assignment was that you were suppose to illustrate an article. So, the readers will have all the words already– you just need to visually represent the theme.

One of the photographers very kindly included his concepting worksheet and has given me permission to share it… that would be that last thumbnail, of course. I wanted to do this because I think it is great to show how at least one person thought through the problem. Thank you Kevin Halliburton, for being so willing to share.

He’s got an awful lot jammed onto this one page of notes and sketches! But he starts with the “Key Concepts” and that is really smart of him. From there he explores other ideas and you can see that his final concept is included on the page. Hard to tell if it was first or last or if he played with everything before deciding on that one, but whatever the system he used, he didn’t just pick one and not explore.

Of course, if this were a real assignment, the photographer would be talking with the photo editor throughout the process so the explanatory notes would not be needed either. I wanted to bring up those notes and the use of text above because, mostly, of the confidence issue. When you send an image, you need to believe it does what it is supposed to do! Moreover, you need to believe it’s good. One photographer sent an image with a note expressing that the photog did not expect to make the cut. Don’t say that! If you don’t believe in your work, who will? (It was a strong image, btw).

Generally, I am really proud of the growth and thought coming from some of you–especially those who don’t usually do conceptual work. There is a lot of thinking in these images, and that is what is most important. Anyone can learn the technical stuff, but the thought is harder– it really has to come from inside the artist.

So, for those of you who submitted, I am really pleased. For those of you who meant to but didn’t, I’m sure for some of you it was a case of getting busy with “real” work, but for some of you it was a case of just not getting your shit together. You know which category you’re in. I encourage all of you to try and do the next assignment. Make it a significant priority–don’t give up paying work, of course, but PLAN and SCHEDULE to make it happen otherwise, that includes time to concept.

I’ll post the next assignment within a week. I have some thoughts swirling about it.

In the meantime, how about some comments from all of you about this one…

This issue is popping up again on the forums so I thought I’d mention it here. In the USA, if you want to do pro bono work, great, fabulous, but don’t look for a tax benefit from it. You cannot deduct the value of your donated time or services (and that includes usage fees). This is actually one of the clearest IRS rules out there. You can find it here, in Publication 526.

Those are the actual words used in that IRS publication, btw: You cannot deduct the value of your time or services.
Shockingly clear, especially for anything coming from the IRS, isn’t it?

Now, even though you don’t get to write of the value, you do want to preserve the value in the mind of your pro bono clients. You never know when Betty from your favorite charity will leave to work for Big Corp and want to hire you. This way, she’ll have a clue what the value of your services (and the industry in general) really are. You do this by showing on your invoice the full value and then noting a discount.

For example:

Creative Fee   $2500
Usage License   $3500
Total   $6000
Discount   -$6000
Balance Due $0

So I encourage you to give to organizations you believe in and want to help. But do it because it comes from your heart and forget about getting anything out of it. Just give.

Brilliant post by University of California (Berkeley) Law Professor Peter Menell on the reality of those who claim to want to “free” creative content to the people. Those claims of a grand social movement don’t jibe with the reality of their actions. And the comparisons they make are an insult to those who really wanted to make an important difference in our country.