Commercial Photographer – 1 of the 15 Most Stressful Jobs

Commercial photographer is rated one of the fifteen most stressful, lowest-paying jobs in the United States, according to a Payscale.com survey published on CNNMoney.com.
In alphabetic order here are the top 15.
1. Assisted living director
2. Commercial photographer
3. Curator
4. Film/television producer
5. Fundraiser
6. High school teacher
7. Marriage/family therapist
8. Membership director
9. Minister
10. Music ministry director
11. News reporter
12. Probation/parole officer
13. Social worker
14. Special events coordinator
15. Substance abuse counselor
Find out more about each here.
50 best jobs.
Top paying jobs.

Photoshelter Survey on Websites


At the Palm Spring Photo Festival, Grover Sanschagrin (Founder, Vice President) of Photoshelter shared great statistics from a recent survey they conducted  on website usage. They polled over 550+ photo buyers discussing what they liked/disliked in photographer websites. The focus is heavily oriented to stock photography. While everyone will use the information in different ways, it’s useful for everyone with a website.
71% will leave after 15 seconds
87% want an immediate price
67% like images larger than 700 pixels
40% look at 4-6 galleries , while 21% look at more than 7
77% don’t watch slideshows
98% objected to watermarks (wouldn’t buy those images)(though transparent
Three golden rules for websites?
Make it easy to use.
Make it simple.
Make it memorable.
Check out the survey here.

Limited Editions – Should You Limit?


Should you limit your editions? It depends. It depends on you. It depends on your level of productivity. It depends on your age. It depends on the kind of work you produce. It depends on the market you’re targeting. It depends on your representatives and how long you expect to be working with them. It depends on how quickly you’d like to see results. It depends on many things.
There’s no clear consensus or set of practices on whether and how you should limit your editions. Ultimately, it’s a personal choice. Make it an informed one. Think long and hard about it. Then act. Undecided? Wait. Keep your editions open. You can always limit later, when you develop a clear desire or identify a clear need to do so.
An edition structure is considered part of the terms of sale. Honor it. If you limit your editions, don’t widen the edition number after initial sales. You may even further limit an edition after it’s issued but while this would increase the value of previous sales it is rarely done, largely because of the complexity of accurate labeling and record keeping. You can adopt different edition structures for different images or at different points in your career; this makes describing edition structures more complex and may confuse consumers leading to loss of sales. You can always raise prices after issuing an edition; how quickly and how much is unclear as it’s determined by increasing demand for an artist’s work; but it’s hoped for by artist, dealer, and collector alike.
The bottom line is that whatever you do, do it with an eye to protecting and increasing the value of your collectors’ purchases. If you do this, the value and market for your work will increase.
There are many pros to limiting editions. It quickly escalates price. It generates broad-based interest in an artist’s entire body of work, directing attention away from top sellers to other works and to new works. It limits the amount of time spent producing the same image, directing the attention of the artist and their representatives alike to the production of new work. (More prolific artist’s benefit more from limiting their editions than less prolific ones.) It appeals to customers who will only buy art in limited editions.
There are many cons to limiting editions. It limits the audience who may appreciate an image. It prevents an artist from enjoying sales of an image at escalated prices as their career matures. (These benefits are enjoyed only on the secondary market. Though higher secondary market prices may help escalate the value of new work.) It prevents the improvement of print quality as an artist’s vision matures or as technology advances. (This can include producing prints with greater longevity or items that can hold their value for a longer time.) It restricts the artist’s ability to gift or trade their work, perhaps to a colleague or a significant collection. For better and for worse, limiting editions limits future options.
Read more in the current issue of Photoshop User magazine.
Learn more in my seminars.
Learn more in my workshops.

Ed Greenburg – On Copyright

Ed Greenberg intellectual property lawyer speaks on Copyright online. Ed has had top notch high profile experience in this area – a lifetime of it! Ed’s been making appearances at Photoshop World with Jack Reznicki and helping clear up easily clouded issues for many creatives both amateur and professional. I learn something new every time I talk with him.

Register Your Copyright


One of the things I do at the beginning of each year is register my copyright for my images.
Registering your copyright is easy.
You can even do it online now.
Find out all you need to know here.
You don’t have to pay a registration fee for each image. You can register them in groups. I register my work in groups annually – i.e. new work 2008. If you’ve never registered before, you can register all your images for one fee – work to date.
If your work is published (or made public) consider registering more frequently. How frequently depends on you and the kind of work you do. Some photographers register their copyright when they deliver a job – every job.
You don’t have to register copyright to have ownership of your rights, they’re yours automatically. Registering your copyright is useful if your rights are infringed – in negotiations before going to court offenders are much more likely to settle out of court and if you go to court you’ll be able to recover your legal expenses as part of a suit.
Seth Resnik offers fantastic resources online to help you cut to the chase with this process and get it done exceptionally well in minimal time. Get them here.

Presenting Your Work


What’s it take to succeed in fine arts? Perseverance, smart work, hard work, information, luck, talent, and friends – in that order. Oh, and it’s not pick two out of eight, it’s all of the above.
In my workshops I not only show my students my work (professionally presented), but I also discuss presentation practices, packaging, marketing, and the business of fine art. There’s an art to the business of fine art. And high quality sources of information on the topic are sorely lacking in this area.
Mary Virginia Swanson does a better job of outlining the business of fine art and identifying opportunities than anyone else I know.
Check out her blog here.
Find out about the Hallmark Institute of Photography here.
Find out more about The Fine Art of Digital Printing workshop here.
Find out about my The Fine Digital Print workshop series here.