Tips for great Senior Portraits

This is going to be a short post becuase I've already written it all and posted it on my website. You can download it here

FRAUD ALERT:

We are posting this alert in the interest of the safety of the modeling community.

This alert pertains to the risk posed by, New Dimension Photography of Springfield OH, currently a member of Model Mayhem - MM# 1021133 (Note: thanks to the prompt cooperation from Model Mayhem his profile has not been removed).

The owner of New Dimension, Robert K. Winkle Jr. (who recently has been going by Rob Kenneth) is the subject of a ongoing copyright investigation regarding several images owned by Jaze Companies that he has stolen and has been using without permission on a variety of websites.

Through our investigation we have learned that Robert Kenneth Winkle Jr. goes by the name Rob Kenneth among the modeling community because he is a registered sex offender. Having been charged with "Use of Minors in nude-oriented material or performance".

Mr. Winkle has engaged in numerous activities including copyright infringement, impersonating an individual and fraud in an effort to grain credibility among models and industry professionals. Combined with his registration in eSORN we have reason to believe he poses a legitimate threat to the modeling community.

We have reason to believe that Mr. Winkle has established false profiles on MySpace and Model Mayhem linked to the email address ashharvardlaw@yahoo.com in an effort to mislead models who ask for referrals. If you have corresponded with this email address be advised that you may be corresponding with Mr. Winkle and not with a model he's worked with.

We urge you to remove any association you may with New Dimensions or New Dimension Photography located in Springfield OH as Mr. Winkle clearly has no regard for professional courtesy or the law.

Jaze Companies has filed several take down notices with sites where Mr. Winkle has chosen to violate the law including MySpace.

If you have been contacted by Rob Kenneth or New Dimension Photography in Springfield OH we urge you, for your safety, not to work with this individual.

Handling Copyright infringement

As a continuation from yesterday's post below are some tips for handling copyright infringement, should you become a victim:

FOR MODELS: If you do not own the copyright for the image you MUST contact the owner of the image. Only the owner of a created work can file a copyright infringement complaint.

I'm going to preface this post with the following disclaimer: I'm am not a lawyer and nothing in this post is meant to be or should be inferred as legal advice. For some copyright infringement issues it may be wise to consult with an attorney regarding your rights, proper course of action and any possible damages that may be owed to you.

Should you find an image of your being used without permission first do yourself the favor of a little self research. Find the original image yourself and compare them side by side to MAKE SURE it's the same image. Models shoot with a variety of photographers and especially with outdoor pictures, you're not that only one that shoots at that park you love, or the beach with the perfect rocks along the shore. And it's possible that a shot may look really similar but not the same and making a false claim is almost as bad as committing the act itself so do yourself a favor and make sure foul play has actually occurred before claiming so.

Once you've confirmed the image(s) are stolen there's a few things to taken into consideration. Has the infringer gained any profit (or stands to gain profit) from your images? This could be financial gain, reputation gain, association gain or other monetary or non-monetary gain from illegal the use of your images. If the answer is yes, you may be eligible for compensation for the offense. If you feel damages are owed to you this would be where you might want to strongly consider getting a lawyer involved.

If you find an attorney then follow their advice and guidance in resolving the manner - there will be a process and certain channels you'll need to go through with your complaint.

If suing is not your immediate course of action and you just want to get the images taken down then you need to contact the webmaster or publication where the image displays and file a copyright infringement complaint. Each website and publication will have it's own process for filing the complaint but they all follow the same basic principles as outlined in the DMCA (if you don't know what this is you owe it to yourself to visit Google and look it up, it will be well worth your time). Your complaint will result in an investigation and ultimately will result in what's called a "take down" notice. This is a formal request to remove the illegally used content. On a website, this is easy - the image just gets taken off the page(s) where it's displayed. In print it usually means a printed retraction and some form of written apology.

This will remove the work and in most cases the displaying organization will contact the source of the image and make them aware of the complaint that's been filed and usually some form of penalty is accessed against the provider of the image.

However, if you're able to find out where the image came from it would be wise to do a little research to see where else your image may be displayed. It is it on this person's website? Have they submitted it to other publications? Are the using the image on banner ads or other marketing initiatives? If so, then you have alot more work to do. Where possible it would be worth your time to contact the infringer with a properly formatted take down notice which can be delivered via email but if possible is best sent by registered mail (or both). A Sample Copyright infringement notice can be found here.

Additionally, it would be wise to file a complaint with major search engines as well. This can result in their pay per click and other search engine marketing programs being suspended. In some cases notifying the ISP or hosting company of their website where their site is being hosted can result in account suspension. NOTE: I'm referring to sites wholly owned by the infringer here - not necessarily the site where you found your work. For example, if another photographer submits one of your photos to a contest - you would notify the contest administrators of the infringment to have the picture removed and the submitter disqualified, however you wouldn't report the contest site to Google. But then you find the infringer's photography website - you would notify Google of the photography website address and notify the hosting company hosting the infringer's website.

Be prepared to provide proof and justification for your claims. In most cases this will mean sending hi-res original images to those you file complaints with. DO NOT send hi-res images to the infringer if they request "proof" the image is yours. All your doing is giving them a hi-res image to try and avoid getting in trouble. If the picture includes a model getting a written statement from the model stating the authenticity of your image and if the situation is true, confirmation that the model never shot with the infringer.

The importance of branding your photos

In light of a current situation I'm dealing with I'd like to take a moment to remind models and photographers alike the importance of branding your images.

Legally I can't comment on my specific situation yet but right now I'm dealing with a situation where photos of mine are currently being used by another photographer who is claiming they are his.

Anytime you put photos online make sure they include a watermark or copyright declaration included on the image. This will, in most cases, further reduce the chances of someone stealing your images. If you're a model make sure you give proper copyright notice on your images. If you're not sure how it should read consult the photographer. If you're a photographer same applies - brand your images.

Some other helpful pointers:
-Downsample images before posting. DO NOT post full hi-res images to the Internet. Upload resized, downsampled versions of the images. If someone steals them and copyright investigations follow the infringer will only have a low res version of the photo. When you can produce a hi-res version of the image you'll be in a better position to prove you're the original creator of the image.
-Avoid posting images in chat rooms and message boards. These venues are popular for image stealing.
-Be familiar with your own work. The images in question in my situation were shot almost 5 years ago. But I recognized them right away.
-Regularly review the Internet for your images. This can be more complicated than you might think but it's worth the time invested. Honestly, the two images I found were by mistake (I was searching for something else at the time). But regularly reviewing modeling/photography sites can turn up some interesting things.

Remember - using anyone's photos without their permission is stealing. Especially if you put your own copyright on someone else's work. It's illegal and there's no other way about it. Copyright infringement is a punishable offense and you can liable financially for damages.

Tomorrow's post will cover some pointers to how to handle copyright infringement.

NYR - Grow your Model/Photo Career - Part 2

Hopefully 2 days was enough time to get through my last war-and-peace size post.

Tonight I want to talk a little about managing your social stream. I'm not sure if anyone else has coined this term so, to start, I'll define it:
Social Stream: The total collection of information you provide over the Internet. This would be any content you provide over Facebook, Myspace, Flickr, Twitter or any other social network that is made available to your friends connected to you on that network.

Your social stream (as a model or photographer or business owner) serves two key purposes:
1. Obviously these networks keep you connected to personal friends.
2 This provides a platform for targeted marketing and promotion.

Let's be honest, there's a few basic business principles that everybody can agree on:
1. It's cheaper to keep an existing customer than it it to acquire a new one
2. People you have a personal connection with are more apt to do business with you compared to people who don't know you.

So based on these things marketing yourself within your social network accomplishes two key things to a successful marketing plan. Plus - most of this stuff costs you nothing but your time when done over the Internet. While we all agree time is money as an independent business owner time is easily subsidized as "free" and besides, if done right it's an investment which will return income in the end anyway.

As a model/photographer you social stream has the benefit of consisting of a variety of content including text, pictures, blog posts, posts of other valuable information you find, etc.

Using your social stream as an effective form of marketing should take into consideration the following:
-Keep a balance of personal and promotional messaging. Remember, you social stream consists mainly of friends (especially starting out). Don't bury your friends with sales promotions, they'll soon ignore everything you post writing it up to just another commercial.
-Use varied media. Everyone has their own preferred content to consume. Some like blogs, others like pictures, others like personal notes. Keep a good mix of content to ensure you've got messaging that appeals to as many people as possible.
-Don't be afraid to get personal. The power of personalized marketing is huge. Sending someone a note just to them has the greatest impact. Make an effort to reach out personally to your contacts from time to time in addition to your "mass media" messages.
-Be consistent. This one is as much for me as everyone else and there's a balance you need to find. To much content and people will ignore it. To little content and people lose interest and stop paying attention, or it just gets missed all together. You'll probably have some trial and error to figure out what the right interval and content mix is right for your audience.

-Try to unify your social stream to a single platform. Your social stream can include a blend of different sources. If you have people following your stream at each source you either have people only getting a portion of your social stream or people have to piece together your stream themselves by joining all your networks individually...which isn't optimal and in most cases the former happens, not the latter. So here's yet another great benefit of Facebook (really they're not paying me to promote their site, I promise). Facebook allows you to import a variety of other social content which is then is displayed and accessible on your Facebook account (to your Facebook contacts). By funneling all your content to a single source your contacts can consume your complete social steam from one point.

Model industry specific sites like OMP and Model Mayhem are excellent resources to market yourself - while unable to be integrated into your social stream like Facebook allows these sites connect you with an audience focused solely around the industry which grows your contacts. And honestly alot of the people you'll find/meet through these sites probably have a Facebook page, which you can then add to your social stream anyway....remember it's all about networking.

So Happy New Year...and yes I did celebrate tonight. Much of this post was prewritten before tonight. So here's to a new year of new business.

New Year's Resolution- Grow your Modeling/Photo Career Part 1

Part of my New Years resolution includes becoming more consistent with my blog. One post a month isn't exactly what keeps readers and I'm sure there's more information I could share than what I do.

But of course the ever present issue with any person in today's world is having time. Life has this funny way of carrying us away and sometimes even with all the advantages of technology you still can't keep up.

So how does this fit into the modeling blog you're probably beginning to wonder... get ready, this is a long post.

It's about your connections...connections to friends, co-workers, prospective co-workers, employers etc. In a world of a crumbling economy big business isn't always big business. Small business owners and independents are more agile and more easily able to adjust to the changing landscape of the business world - And models, are all presidents of their own personal business and career.

So as a model (or photographer, makeup artists etc) you are the president and CEO of your own business - and you need to treat it that way. Complete with a plan, a plan that includes marketing, business development, relationship management, accounting...you get the idea.

As I'm sure you can tell I've somewhat recently had this realization myself. I've always had a somewhat loosely formulated plan for most of these things but it's not something I've really truly practiced - after all, I'm a photographer right? My job is to take pictures. Oddly enough, if you don't do any of the other above stuff - you never get to that picture taking part.

Web 2.0
If you don't already know this term...you're behind and losing more ground by the hour. You need to get on board and leverage all the power this new world of the Internet holds. So, for those of you that don't know. In it's most simplest terms Web 2.0 is boom of the social networking lifestyle (MySpace, Facebook, blogging, the interconnection of the web and wireless devices etc). People LIVE on the Internet. No matter where they are, what they're doing, the Internet is easily within reach whether on their phone or the computer.

Exposure that works for you
Web 2.0 basically has the power to connect you with almost anyone, regardless of where they are. For marketers this is key (and why you need to have a marketing plan). Traditional marketing relied on your prospect to be exposed to a medium (TV, Radio, reading a paper, magazine, passing a billboard) in order to get a marketing message if you weren't watching you didn't see it. Now with people connected to the Internet virtually 24/7 through computers, PDA's, Cell Phones etc you can hit people with your message no matter where they are - and they can consume media on their own terms. You post a bulletin on MySpace - its there when they sign in. Not like a TV or radio commercial where if you're not listening the time it airs you miss it. Take this blog for instance, if your subscribe you'll get an email with this post and you'll read it when you have time. If you're not looking at my blog page when I hit publish - you don't miss it - you just get it next time you're connected.

Facebook and MySpace: The two heavy-weights of the social networking industry aren't just a flash in the pan trend. These two sites are rapidly changing the way people (and businesses) market and connect with consumers. The principle is pretty basic when you think about it...if you have something to sell - and there's a place where millions of consumers are already gathering everyday - wouldn't it make sense to market your product there? I've read countless blogs and marketing tips that say having one and not the other isn't enough...and I'm now practicing what I'm about to preach: It's true. If you want to leverage all the power of social networking you should have a presence on both. Facebook and Myspace serve two different fundamental purposes that feed back to the same overall goal...exposure.

Blogging: Not everyone is a blogger but there's some value in the power that blogging can bring to your web presence. If you have a website, blogging helps your SEO (if you don't know what that term is look it up - far too lengthy of an explanation to list here). Blogs drive traffic to your site and vice versa. And the more people you have looking at you the more exposure you have...the more exposure you have...you get the idea. (Sidebar on SEO: Facebook Pages help with SEO as well).

Other Social Networking platforms: I can think of other things like minor social networks like hi5, or the end-user created social webs of Ning, photo social networks like Flickr, model specific networks like OMP and Model Mayhem (OMP is a site that existed well before Web 2.0 and has recently completed a large site overhaul to incorporate much of the social networking feel to their site), and other platforms like twitter.

Leverage Integration:
So the next question - and one I asked myself is: I already don't have time to formulate all these marketing, relationship management, business development plans and whatever else you listed above - how can I be expected to manage a social profile on 15 different sites?

A very valid question. As a business owner (remember you're a business owner) you have to wear many hats. The disadvantage for self represented models is often you're the sole employee of your business - nobody to share the workload with. This puts a tremendous amount of responsibility on you.

Facebook in particular allows you to integrate a variety of media channels into their site. For example my newly created Facebook profile is connected to my flickr account, this blog, and my twitter account. When I post a new blog entry here it automatically gets listed on my Facebook profile. Add pictures to Flickr, they get listed on Facebook. Facebook has a huge collection of apps to allow you to connect together YOUR social network (by that I mean all the social platforms you belong to). Facebook somewhat becomes a hub to communicate all your social outlets to your contacts. This allows you to filter all your contacts to one place instead of having twitter contacts, flickr contacts etc and everyone only getting a segment of your social stream. Plus Facebook allows you to manage much of your profile (and interacting with contacts) via cell phone so can network on the go. No integration with MySpace but for obvious reasons that's expected.

Unfortunately a strong social network presence is only a piece of the pie. Utilizing social marketing is only part of a complete marketing plan. For each person, their needs, expectations and goals that plan is different so you need to develop a plan that will work best to fit your needs.

The next post will cover another element of this whole thing.
Tips for next steps:
I'm just learning Facebook myself so I'm not going to pretend to tell people exactly how to get the most bang for their buck - I've been doing research, alot of research myself. Start with Google and do searches for Marketing on Facebook, Marketing using Facebook and Tips on Social Marketing. You'll find a host of valuable information from professionals who do this everyday, professionals I'm learning from.

If you don't a Facebook account yet get one, import your address book into it and start making connections. Same holds for MySpace. The sooner you get started the sooner you'll benefit from the rewards.

If you're big into posting pictures online check out Flickr and open an account.

My next post will address another element from the list at the top of this post...stay tuned.

A model's portfolio is never done

After a bit of a dry spell I've been inspired with a few topics so here's one of a new series of posts:

A few words about Modeling Portfolios: They're never done.

A model should never consider her portfolio finished unless she's finished modeling. A portfolio is an everchanging, ever growing collection of images showcasing a model's work. You're an artist and artists don't typically stop creating unless they retire.

I often hear models who will make claims like they don't need any more pictures for their portfolio, or they have a well established portfolio - or something else along the lines of "Thanks by I'm done building my portfolio"

Now often times it's a model's way of lightly refusing an offer to shoot with a photographer - and that's all well and good if that's all it is. But numerous times I hear this from models who truly believe that they no longer need to build their portfolio....Again, allow me to refer to you the second line of this post.

A model's portfolio is never complete. It should be edited, old pictures removed and new pictures taking their place. If you've made a major change to your look then your portfolio requires an overhaul to update all images to be representative of your current look.

Utilize TFP to build your portfolio. If you need new images for your portfolio utilize TFP where you can. If you need images for your book don't make a photographer pay you for the shoot - that's not what commercial shoots are for. Commercial shoots are for photographers to work on specific projects of their choosing, of which they retain the usage rights for. I've run into models who have the expectation the a photographer is going to pay them anytime they get in front of a camera - even if it's for their own (the model's) purposes and this isn't the case. Another way to think about it is: the person dictating the creative/content is client, the person following the direction is the hired service provider. In any other natural setting in this arrangement the client pays the service provider for the work to be performed.

In a collaborative situation the lines get skewed a little since both parties are fulfilling both roles but I think the core concept comes across. The moral of my story is the same as most of my other posts - there are a variety of resources for models in this industry to get what they need without having to pay alot of money for it. At the same time though, be fair. Just becuase you're having your picture taken doesn't mean your neccessarily entitled to a paycheck.