Saturday, October 22, 2005

Friday's Sessions

The first session I attended was "Your Picture How to Get Published."
The moderator was W.H. Hunt with panelists, Elizabeth Blondi, Kathleen Klech, Jodi Quon, and Kathy Ryan. One was photo editor for Conde Nast's Traveller magazine. One was photo editor for the New Yorker magazine. It was interesting that it is amazingly easy to get your portfolio in to these people. They all preferred prints (even prints you have made yourself) over CD's. They each presented photos from photographers that had impressed them and that showed how that led to an assignment with their magazine. I was impressed both by the creativity and that many of these photos would not win at many of the online contests where I have been participating. While most of my work does not really fit the needs of these publications, I learned about a new contest to enter at the Santa Fe Workshops.

Next on the agenda was: Turning your Images into Gold
Moderator was Jeff Sedlik, Panelists Martin Lawlor - Bruce McGaw Graphics, Phil Jackson - Bruce Teleky (art print, poster distributor) and John Lund (Animal Antics - everyone has seen his dogs playing poker images)

This session really fits the photography that I do. Jeff Sedlik got started when his first child was two - as a way to plan for college. You can market yourself - printing your own and finding distributors or you can license your work. It seems that many of the companies want to carry your work exclusively. And you get a better percentage if you go directly to them rather than through a stock agency. (You can have other work out for stock.) So I'm glad I learned that early in the process. Home decorating is a big part of this business model. So you want to think of photo pairs and "suites." I will certainly follow up on the information from this panel because I think my photos might fit with their needs.

My last session was "Maximizing Stock Photography Income" by Tom Grill
This guy was amazing. He conveyed a lot of information in a short period of time. Some of my friends and family will rue this day as I am likely to start bugging them to ask as models as I try to implement some of the ideas. While many of these shots may not be my favorite thing to do - they could certainly provide an income stream that would allow me to pursue the outdoor photography that is my first love. Concept photography has been mentioned to me before and is critical to getting your work used for advertising purposes.
Tom Grill

I took time to attend the special event: An Intimate Conversation with Three of Photography's Icons: Joel Meyerowitz, Douglas Kirkland, and Elliott Erwitt
Joel Meyerowitz spent 8 months documenting the cleanup at the World Trade Center. He went every day. His current project: he will be photographing all of New York's Parks. Like another professional photographer I have met, boldness is one of his characteristics - his story of how he was able to get in to the Trade Center site is a lesson in persistance. Douglas Kirkland is a celebrity photographer - you will recognize some of his photos of famous people. Looking at how he used lighting in his work is amazing. Elliot Erwitt's work shows the power in black and white photography. He was a street photographer and his photos are well worth studying.

I will come back and add more to this post when I have more time.

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