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A national wrap up of all the attempts at squashing the press lately..

It is an artist’s prerogative as to whether or not they will allow photography of their performances. A photo ban is one thing but it appears that Beyoncé wishes to have her cake and eat it too. She still wants photographic coverage but only wants to release images of her own choosing. The NPPA believes that this is improper and we have said so in our letter to her publicist.

We also believe that once it becomes apparent that news organizations are willing to accept this type of policy and use handout photos it will only encourage others to follow suit. The danger in this type of “infotainment” is that the public will be denied the information and images that come from independent news gathering and the media will be relegated to being nothing more than aggregators of sanitized material provided by public relations firms and press secretaries. This point is best illustrated in a joint protest by the NPPA and the White House News Photographers (WHNPA) Association regarding the photo manipulation of an official photograph made available for distribution by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s office.

via Photography & the Law – Beyonce’ and Beyond: A Roundup of Recent Legal Issues – JPG News.

…when two Internet giants merge like this, it affects the landscape in many different ways and one of those ways is, inevitably, copyright.

While the buyout doesn’t mean there’s new legislation or new technology to ponder, it does affect the practical realities of copyright on the Web so it’s worth taking a moment to step back and think about what this means for both the current Tumblr uses, those who have to deal with Tumblr on copyright matters and the Web at large.

via Plagiarism Today 

Unless you actually were busy shooting or live under a rock you might of heard that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer thinks we don’t need pro photographers anymore.

Best comeback in defense of all pro’s:

If we don’t need pro photographers because everyone has a camera on their phone then we obviously don’t need professional chefs anymore because of the infinite availability of bowls and spoons.

Top reasons you need a pro:

  • It takes about 10 years of training to really know how to shoot and light many different kinds of products and subjects.
  • Pro’s actually use very expensive lighting and know how to shape it. (If you don’t know what that means you already are using the wrong person…)
  • Pro’s have a vast arsenal of lens and cameras to make sure the image is the right image for the project. Believe it or not the “everything in focus look” the iPhone provides are really bad for most advertising shots. Why? There is no separation of subject and background.
  • Pros don’t teach themselves on the Internet. Most learned via the Master & Pupil method in the actual world:  which means they assisted for years with seasoned pros who taught them their craft.
  • Pros know how to manipulate the way you look at an image. Which means they can bring attentions to what needs to be noticed and diminish the background visual noise.
  • Pro’s know how the language of photography can be used to help you get your message out clearly.
  • Pro’s know how to take a drawing of an idea and make it a reality.
  • Pro’s understand conceptually how a photograph communicates your ideas best. It is with this knowledge that a pro can help you separate your company from the pack.

At the height of its power, the photography company Kodak employed more than 14,000 people and was worth $28 billion.  But today Kodak is bankrupt, and the new face of digital photography has become Instagram. When Instagram was sold to Facebook for a billion dollars in 2012, it employed only 13 people.

via Jaron Lanier: The Internet destroyed the middle class – Salon.com.

Interview via WPR Best of our Knowledge podcast is here

 

A 2013 survey on UK and USA commercial photography day rates by the folks at Eposure