“You begin with on-camera flash and after one shoot realize how utterly terrible that approach is underground,” Bob Hower shares of the techniques he has developed over 35 years while recording mining operations. After beginning with Howser, Best of ASMP 2010 invites us into the worlds of Herbert Ascherman, Anne Hamersky and Jamey Stillings, then introduces us to twelve more photographers before ending with Matt Dayka, Tom Rossiter, Shawn G. Henry and Manjarmi Sharma.

The American Society of Media Photographers has given us a real treat with Best of ASMP 2010. Check it out!

This important observation comes from Susan Carr in her great ADBASE “Insight” article, “Protect & Respect: Why It’s important to Register Images.” Carr not only goes over the Whys, but leads us to practical Hows.

As Carr, a photographer dedicated to photographer rights, a past president of the Amiercan Society of Media Photographers and a regular contributor to ASMP’s “Strictly Business Blog,” explains:

“When I first started registering my photographs with the Copyright Office, I cherry picked images or projects based on my own assessment of their value.

“It turns out that I am not the best judge of what the market will like or use. For example, I photographed a project 10 years ago for an architect. The license clearly states no third-party use. Fast-forward: I recently discovered these same images on various sub-contractors’ websites.”

Carr goes on to explain that:

“Without registering the work prior to the infringement, I simply do not have the big stick to bring to the table.”

The Reality

As Carr points out, there are some many factors working against photographers when in comes to copyright infringement in the digital era, especially:

• The ease with which people can copy and use our images.

• The impending change to copyright law know as “Orphan Works Legislation.”

• The stripping of critical copyright and ownership metadata by many popular social media sites, such as FaceBook.

The Good News — Taking Action

The good news is that the Copyright Office has made it easier than ever before to automate copyright registration as part of every photographer’s workflow. To get up to speed on this, check out:

• The free, two-hour “Registration Counts” workshop offered to by the ASMP to member and nonmembers alike, upcoming in cities nationwide.

• Online you can refer to ASMP’s very clear and comprehensive “Copyright Tutorial: Best Practices for Registering Your Photographs.” (Very, very well done.)

• The ASMP copyright registration podcast version of the above info.

Be Prepared To Be Stripped

Regarding how to deal with metadata stripping (which many photographers are not aware of) Carr shares:

“For uses like Facebook, consider adding a credit line on the image so that your name and copyright notice are intact and visible. And, be aware of the terms of service on social media sites. An analysis of these terms is available at http://www.asmp.org/socialmediaterms.”

Action, Not Fear

Susan Carr’s insights on copyright protection are refreshing because she avoids motivation through fear tactics (never very helpful), but keeps us thinking positively and professionally. She ends her great article with this note:

“Photographers own the copyrights to their work at the moment of creation, as soon as the original idea is fixed in a tangible form. But if you are a professional, your work does not end here. You should register your work with the Copyright Office, embed contact and copyright information into every file and, wherever possible, seek attribution adjacent to your images.

“Treat your work with the professional respect you want to be given.”

This is from the Gail Mooney’s new website, “Opening Our Eyes: Global Stories About the Power of One.” As the site explains, Mooney — an accomplished documentary photographer and filmmaker — will be heading around the world with her daughter, Erin Kelly, to gather the material they need to create a feature length film.

This is a project worth keeping tabs on. For one thing, it’s Mooney’s latest personal project, which are always impressive, as she uses them to push her photography forward, both creatively and in terms of business.

“Opening Our Eyes” is particularly interesting to those of us in the industry because Mooney will be pushing her limits in terms of working in both still and motion, employing light and affordable equipment. In short, she will be heading into waters that many of us will heading into ourselves — still & motion — and she does so with the insights of an impressive background in traditional still and motion.

Mooney is in a perfect position to show us how to capture both great stills and motion, ensuring that both get put to the best use. (To see what Mooney’s capable of, check out her shorts for “The Delta Blues Musicians” and “Freedom’s Ride.”)

Freedom’s Ride from Gail Mooney on Vimeo.

This is not to suggest that “Opening Our Eyes” will be about photography for photographers. Hardly. As always, Mooney will focus on the story — on her subjects — focusing on the task of best communicating that story to the most appropriate audience.

Nonetheless, Mooney is very interested in sharing what she learns with photographers. She has already been sharing her knowledge for photographers transitioning to video through her posts on the “ASMP’s Strictly Business Blog,” as well as by giving seminars on the topic.)

As Mooney makes clear, one main ingredient of her “Opening Our Eyes” project will be to rely on the power of serendipity. Much of this serendipity is driven by her involvement the social media of Web 2.0. Mooney has been increasingly embracing social media over the last year  — FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, blogging — and much of the planning for “Opening Our Eyes” has come from the web of interconnectivity she has found in the social media realm.

In “Journeys of a Hybrid,” Mooney’s inspiring blog on photography and filmmaking, Mooney has been writing about “Opening Our Eyes.” The details of “Booking a Round the World Airline Ticket” are both daunting and inspiring. This post is also featured on the “Opening Our Eyes” site, showing that Mooney will have some blogging crossover. But not always.

Today, on “Journey’s of a Hybrid” Mooney posted  “Putting Together a DSLR Video Kit — And Why,” and it likely won’t appear on “Opening Our Eyes.” In other words, as Mooney (and partner Erin Kelly) pump up the content of “Opening Our Eyes” over the coming months, Mooney, through “Journey’s”, will be sharing insights on her photographic process for those of us who share her passion for visual storytelling. This is good news for those of us eager to expand our video knowledge.

In Mooney’s “DSLR Video Kit” post, we hear an expert photographer and filmmaker talking to us about how, at Zacuto, she “was looking for products that were designed to help with camera stability, focus aids and audio when using the Canon 5D or 7D which I will soon be purchasing. She goes into many technical details of preparing a modern-day, around-the-world still-video kit. Good stuff.

Gail Mooney and Erin Kelly will be leaving for Uganda on May 25th, returning back to the United States on August 3rd, after making loads of stops to record “global stories about the power one.” The team will then head to South America (dates not certain) to finish their coverage.

Although Mooney has nailed down most dates for “Opening Our Eyes,” she remains open to possibilities about exactly how this project might play out — and she will be posting much of her process on her blogs and other social media outlets.

All of these are major reasons to pay attention to “Opening Our Eyes.” Not only does Mooney welcome supportive fans, but she is interested in direct support and participation — from the people who have suggested story ideas to volunteers who might active participants in content creation or distribution. (”If you know an expert user experience designer who wants to volunteer for the project, let me know,” Mooney told me recently.)

This social media aspect of “Opening Our Eyes” is very new ground for Mooney. She is a pro when it comes to hectic world travel, returning home with great stories in images. But she is showing true courage in her use of social media. Not only is she reaching out for ideas and inspiration, but she is allowing the media to become part of the process, and even the message itself. As she embraces new technology, she also welcomes the powerful possibilities served up by serendipity.

No doubt Gail Mooney will open our eyes with the final products she creates with Erin Kelly for “Opening Our Eyes.” But don’t just wait for the end results. Get hooked into Mooney’s social media network by becoming her FaceBook friend, signing up for RSS feeds to her sites, and watching Mooney’s unfolding process of visual storytelling practices that embrace the power of video and social media

“The American Society of Media Photographers provides this forum to encourage the development of critical skills and to foster new ideas. Our goal is an informed and savvy professional photography community.”

This is indeed a forum – with multiple contributors and an impressive amount content posted since its inception in March, as well as in depth comments from readers whom are clearly engaged.

“Strictly Business” does not cover topics in relation to the business of photography in the strictest sense, but in a more overarching sense. For example, while there is a post on “Knowledge is Power in a Negotiation” by Blake Discher and “Selling Solutions” by Judy Herrmann, you will also find “Taking Pictures for No Reason at All” by Sean Kernan and “Ideas Worth Spreading,” also by Herrmann.

So there is business and creativity.

Of course, there is a lot of content that falls into greyer areas of the intersection of art and business, such as the “My Greatest Hits for Understanding Social Media, Recession Marketing and Branding” by Jack Hollingsworth and “Tips For a Better Facebook Experience” by Ed McDonald.

On of the most enticing features of “Strictly Business” is the inclusion of multiple high quality videos featuring a range of notable photographers. “Thoughts on Pricing, Business and the Impact of Digital” features a number of photographers. In “Everything You Do Is Marketing,” Leslie Burns-Dell’Acqua shares her insights on “tools beyond your website, portfolio and mailers.”

Another nice aspect of “Strictly Business” is that it links directly to select, useful content within ASMP’s main Web site, such as the “Bad Contract Tutorial” and “Property and Model Releases.”

Like all Web-based forums, “Strictly Business” is a work in progress and is sure to improve over time, which is wonderful. But even as is, it is an amazing resource, taking total advantage of Web 2.0 to allow all photographers – even if not ASMP members – to gain access to the insights and dialog among some of the association’s most successful and thoughtful members.

Great going ASMP!

Welcome to the Blogosphere “Strictly Business!”

Joe has done a lot of photography advocacy work through the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP), but has shown his ability extend his reach using New Media. He started a photo-centric blog a couple years ago, and now he’s turning to FaceBook.

Created by Carlos Miller, there are already 1,200 members of the “Photography is Not a Crime,” and a number of the members read like a Who’s Who in the industry.

To give you a taste of recent postings, Sean Arbabi wrote: “Carry an AK-47 and you’ll be fine, walk somewhere and set up a tripod, and your mobbed by security. Carry a tripod that has a built in AK-47, and then you’ve got some real trouble.”

Arbabi writing lightly of course, but about a serious topic. As he adds: “In all seriousness, it’s true- too many of us are bugged by people while we do our job. Although the paparazzi don’t give us all the best name.”

Eddie North-Hager shared a link to a story about “South Florida model jailed overnight for videotaping police officers.”

Of course, this being FaceBook, regardless of how practical the group may prove relating to your interests to defend photographers’ rights, it sure is another great way to network!

The Universal Photographic Digital Imaging Guidelines (UPDIG) are a set of very concise and well informed guidelines related to the full scope of digital imaging practices. Just a few of the topics covered include color management, monitor calibration, file formats, naming conventions, resolution, sharpening, file delivery and workflow. And there’s much, much more.

The UPDIG guidelines are organized very clearly and thoughtfully online and are also available in PDF format. UPDIG is a free service that has been made available to the industry through a broad coalition of more than 20 international photography associations, as well as support from the Library of Congress.

I wasn’t writing literally when I said that UPDIG can provide us with all the answers to all our digital questions. Even with UPDIG, we’re still going to have to keep reading all of those books and magazines, visiting websites and attending seminars to keep up with the digital learning curve. But as soon as you check out UPDIG, my bet is that’s you’ll see how these guidelines fulfill a utterly unique and valuable need.

What is amazing about UPDIG is how much information is covered, and the authority with it is covered—having been developed with the input of an international working group with a massive amount of combined expertise. And yet the guidelines are amazingly straightforward, easy to peruse and a great place to gain clarification and increase fundamental knowledge.

One thing that is particularly useful about the most recent version of the UPDIG guidelines (v.3) is they provide more information for clients licensing and using images—not just information for photographers. Richard Anderson, the principal author of UPDIG and a commercial photographer with three decades of experience, felt that this was a particularly important aspect of the current version of UPDIG to address. And so he spearheaded the new section called, “The Guidelines for Image Receivers.”

“Most clients don’t have any idea the amount of work photographers have to do in postproduction,” Anderson explained to me. “‘The Guidelines for Image Receivers’ is a tool photographers can use for creating better understanding and communication with clients.”

The history of how UPDIG came into existence is pretty interesting. The initiative was started by the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP), and at first those working on the project were looking to define concrete standards. However, by the time Anderson came to the project it was realized that there is little, if anything, that is actually standard in electronic imaging. Thus, Anderson set about authoring the more appropriate and flexible guidelines.

Take a look at the UPDIG Guidelines and let the ACMetaforum community know what you think. UPDIG is a work in progress and Anderson and the UPIG team would appreciate your constructive feedback.