Author Archive
Seeking Licensing Solutions
Posted: February 28th, 2012
[by Richard Kelly] For imaging professionals the issues of copyright, licensing and compensation are forever intertwined. For the past three decades this model – licensing a specific use for a specific amount of money – has served us well. In the print days we could limit use based on audited periodical circulation, a fixed number [...]
How Experimentation & Creativity Feed Profitability
Posted: December 1st, 2011
[by Richard Kelly] My personal work has always directed my commercial work. A portrait project here led to a magazine assignment there. A personal documentary led to a non-profit capital campaign. An experimental video led to a music video. Personal projects feed both my creativity and professional bottom line. When I’m face-to-face with a client [...]
No Small Decisions
Posted: October 12th, 2011
[by Richard Kelly] “There are no small decisions in moviemaking.” – Sidney Lument , Director (pg 112 MAKING MOVIES by SIDNEY LUMENT Vintage Books) If you change “moviemaking” to photography, well you get the picture. This to me summarizes all my decisions from art, to craft to commerce. Every action has a consequence, or a [...]
Would You Sign This?
Posted: September 10th, 2010
[by Richard Kelly] Getting the appropriate model releases from our subjects that appear in photographs for commercial use is what a “professional” does as part of the overall practice of business. The standard adult release says, “…They have the irrevocable, perpetual and unrestricted right and permission to take, use, re-use, publish, and republish photographic portraits [...]
What I Learned on my Way to the Commons
Posted: June 24th, 2010
[by Richard Kelly] It is my perspective that the role of copyright is to promote publication. Copyright is the engine that allows professionals to grant permission and collect money for the use of their work, that permission is a license. I see no reason for this to change. The fundamental change is how our images [...]
Copyright Registration – Protecting Your Investment
Posted: May 12th, 2010
[by Richard Kelly] With The Copyright Act of 1976 and later revisions including the Berne Convention, artists were no longer required to register for copyright nor to provide copyright notice. In my opinion, these two facts have led to two decades of visual artists thinking that they were protecting their visual investments. For a commercial [...]
Post Symposium Thoughts
Posted: April 23rd, 2010
[by Richard Kelly] If content is king, distribution is its queen. What does distribution and publication really mean today and in the foreseeable future? How can independent artists exercise their rights and gain fair compensation for the use of their work? I believe visual artists must adapt. We need to do business more efficiently by [...]
The Four “R”s of Pricing Photography
Posted: March 12th, 2010
[by Richard Kelly] The Four “R”s of Pricing Photography are Relationships, Rates, Rights and Reputation. One of the most valued benefits to my ASMP membership is the relationship I have with my fellow photographers. Not just the chapter meetings or the membership list serves, but real one on one relationships with my peers. I mostly [...]
So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades
Posted: January 8th, 2010
[by Richard Kelly] No one predicting the future ever seems to get it right. So, I shouldn’t try either. Instead I am going to share what I am starting to see happen. Traditional “old media” Publishers are still trying to figure out how to survive the shift from print to pixels. One way would [...]
I want my ASMP Video….
Posted: October 20th, 2009
For as long as I have been on the ASMP board, first as Education chair and now as President, I have heard from members and chapter presidents that we need to know more about video / motion, that we should use video for our education programming and that video should be utilized on our ASMP website. [...]
Charlie Rose is Free!
Posted: August 27th, 2009
For those of you who know me, you probably know that Charlie Rose is my favorite show on TV. As a curious person, I find the guests on the Charlie Rose show peak my interest even if I know nothing about the subject or topic. The number of books I have read based on the [...]
Summer Book : TRIBES by Seth Godin
Posted: July 23rd, 2009
It is summer 2009 and while some of us are packing the car for vacations to the sea shore or the mountains, many of us are choosing to “staycation”, or rather staying close to home or taking day trips to area attractions. Today’s economy is forcing us to re-evaluate, not just the family summer vacation [...]
Our First Week of Business Quick Tips
Posted: May 18th, 2009
ACCOUNTING TIP – pre-filled W-9 Form When working with a new client, after the job is complete and delivered the next step will be to send an invoice to get paid. David Oster, my accountant recommends having an IRS Form W-9 filled out and ready to send to new clients with your invoices. The W-9 [...]
A Social Media Strategy
Posted: May 15th, 2009
“There are no small decisions in moviemaking.” Change moviemaking to photography and that Sidney Lumet quote can teach us a lot about our photography and the business of. Jack Hollingsworth, an Austin based Photographer and Content Creation Partner, and a student of social media and marketing, spoke recently at the Picture Archive Council of America [...]
“Marketing Management is now Tribal Leadership” Seth Godin
Posted: April 29th, 2009
If you haven’t yet read TRIBES - We need you to lead us by Seth Godin, today is the day to do just that, at 160 pages it is easily a weekend read. The basic tribe concept is that groups of people form tribes around a person or an idea or a product to create [...]
The Only Way Out is to Shoot Our Way Out
Posted: April 24th, 2009
“It’s the economy stupid” was from the Clinton campaign (Bill’s not Hillary’s) and it is as true today as it was back then. On Monday, I attended the ASMP Chicago/Midwest Soup Kitchen & Town Hall Meeting “On Surviving This Economy (because failure is not an option!)” when Chicago based advertising photographer, Jim Krantz, offered the [...]
My Online Watercooler
Posted: April 3rd, 2009
As an editorial photographer living in Pittsburgh I am not really in the center of the magazine publishing world, but by subscribing and reading Meg Weaver’s weekly newsletter, Wooden Horse Publishing, I feel connected to the who, what, when and where of the publishing world. Like any resource, especially online, I only consider it one [...]
BUILDING YOUR OWN TEAM – The Accountant
Posted: March 25th, 2009
It is that tax time again. I just met my accountant for our semi annual cup of coffee to drop off my paperwork and financial records for him to use in preparing my taxes. I can’t tell you how much of a relief it is to know that I have someone on my team. Being [...]
