My business is technically 2 years old in August. As with most new businesses I'm off to a slow start for things like logos, personalized bags and things of that nature. Well one of the big reasons that I have been holding off is that I have been struggling with creating a logo.

I suffer from the same thing as almost every creative person I have ever met. We are never really happy with our own work. We see the flaws, we wonder if moving a line a 1/4 of inch will really matter. Well a talented and wonderful woman came to my rescue. Studio524studio524, whose work I adore, created the most fantastic logo for me.

Ncheader

Punctum Day. What the heck is it? According to Istock: "Punctum Day, August 19, was declared in 2007 by iStockphoto as a special day to celebrate creative excellence. The day holds dual significance for iStock because it was August 19, 1839, that Louis Daguerre first introduced an early type of photograph, the Daguerreotype, to the world and it is also the birthday of Jeff Howe, Wired magazine writer, who introduced the staff at iStock HQ to the meaning of punctum." - Punctum Day Announcement.

What does all that mean? It basically boils down finding the images that make you sit back and go "Wow". The ones that emotionally touch you. That make you think. That will be the classics of tomorrow. You know, the images that make lousy stock because they are to "artsy".

What it boils down to is an excuse to have another contest. Images that meet the criteria can be nominated for the competition. A group of admin will assess each image and narrow each category down to something manageable. Categories include Photo, Vector, Video, Flash and Design. The the images are displayed for IS members to vote on. The winning images in each category win a $5,000 prize. Prizes also go to "Most Deserving of a New Camera", "Most Improved", and Battle Royale Champion". 3 Istockers will also be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Since it's highly unlikely that I will even have images nominated, much less make the final cut, the only real thing of interest is the 100% royalty day. This is only offered to exclusives and is not announced. Just some time between now and Aug 19th, for one day, exclusives will get 100% of their royalties.

Of course 100% of 0 is still 0, so it's not worth getting my hopes up over this either but a girl has to have some hope.

In the meantime I have been busy with other things. That post will come in time. :)

As expected the latest IS announcement was underwhelming. The last of the 3 "big" announcements for exclusives is that the inspectors will remove inappropriate keywords for us. Non-exclusives will still have their images rejected and have to sort out their own keywords. This may sound like a blessing but it's really just putting a band aid on a broken arm.

Many of the biggest spammers are exclusives. They, of course, do not want anyone to remove the word "business" from their image of an isolated dog with sunglasses. But they are not the only ones with an issue. Some contributors actually know what they are shooting and keyword the Latin names for the birds, animals or plants that they shoot. Others have very specific niches which have a vocabulary of their own. The inspectors most likely have no idea about the level of understanding the contributor does and could easily remove relevant keywords just because they don't realize that they do, in fact, apply to the image.

In addition to that this latest announcement has created a distinct "us v. them" scenario. The non-exclusives feel attacked or left out in this new initiative. Now don't get me wrong, those who took the leap of faith and went exclusive deserve their perks but the keywording nightmare really needs to be addressed without creating animosity amoung the members. Exclusives should be getting all the perks they were promised when they signed up. At the moment exclusives get business cards, additional royalties, 2 or 3 day turn arounds for inspection (most of the time) and higher upload limits. However they do not get perferred treatment for things like Best Match, Vox or any other marketing scheme, which means that the "at IS only collection" is not being promoted anymore than non-exclusive images are. This, combined with the keyword spamming problem, is why relevant images from exclusives end up on page 10 of the search while spammed irrelevant images (from both exclusives and non) are on the first page. What this basically comes down to is those who know what they are talking about and keyword correctly are being punished and their sales are dropping because their exposure is dropping, while those who continue to spam are being rewarded.

You have to also remember that this announcement came on the heels of another "big announcement", that managed to piss off both sides of the fence as well. The "if you sign up now you could win a free trip" announcement which only applied to those who just signed up. If you've been exclusive for a while then you weren't eligible.

I'm silver exclusive at the moment, however, with my sales consistently dropping and no hope of ever making gold in my lifetime I once again find myself wondering if exclusivity is really worth it. Would I be able to make up the lost 10% by uploading to other sites? What about model releases? How do you non-exclusives do it? Just make everyone sign 2 releases? I was really hoping that the new announcements would renew my faith in IS and that they would prove that they really are trying to be the best site. But they once again put more effort into the hype than into the feature and in the process upset not only me, but most of the rest of the site as well.

The new announcements are pouring in at IS. To encourage contributors to sign up for exclusivity they are offering a chance at an all expenses paid trip to one of the upcoming Istocklypses. They are scheduled for Seattle, WA, Germany and Australia. The Seattle one is only open to Diamond level contributors though, and the Australia one is for illustrators. Don't get me wrong I think it's great that they are trying to cater to the unique issues of these groups, I just don't fall into either group.

Speaking of which they should all be  home soon from the first ever "social" lypse in Malta. Previous iStocklypses have been a combination of classes/learning and group shoots. With IS providing the models and locations, we pay for our travel costs and a participation fee. IS handles the MR's so we can just shoot away. Some are better organized than others. This one was supposed to be more of a social gathering than a shoot out.

I  have yet to attend a proper lypse. I have been to 2 mini's. One in Toronto and PhillyBuster, which was more in Jersey than Philly but I'm not complaining. The spawn went to Toronto but not to Philly. We stayed a few days extra in Toronto and made a vacation out of it. We had a lot of fun. I'm hoping to go to Germany for this Lypse but I doubt it will happen.

We'll wait and see I guess. I miss Germany. I was there in the mid 80's while my father was active duty. We were stationed in Kalkar. I remember being able to watch the Fashing Parade (yeah I probably messed up the spelling) go right down our street. I used to love to walk to the markets in the town square. My parents would let us put our shoes out for St. Nikolaus Tag but we always ended up with coal in them.

Later we were transfered to a bigger base in Weisbaden. It wasn't nearly as much fun because we spent all of our time on the base.

But to get to the point of the post, Getty will be accepting images from those who are Silver or above starting this fall. Right now it's Gold and up only. I'm not sure if I will go for this or not yet. I will probably sign up but the existing contributors are giving mixed reviews about how things are at Getty. At least the ones who will post in the regular forums. And besides if I sign up then I can technically say that I'm a photographer with Getty. Although I don't know that even carries the weight that it once did.

Now that Bruce is back he's wasting no time in implementing changes. First there's the deal with Blurb. The book publishing group allows members to self publish books and make them available for sale to the public. The whole thing sounds intriguing. I've had a few book ideas kicking around so now may be the time to but them together.

Blurb uses a template software that you download to your system. Very similar to Roes but for books. If you don't want to use the template then you can start blank and do it yourself. I've downloaded the software and it seems to be pretty easy to use. Now I just have to gather my thoughts and move forward. That is always the harder part.

The other big change is to the pricing structure. There will still be pay as you go, the model we're all familiar with, but now you can choose from more options. Do you need 10 or 2000 credits? Maybe something in the middle. As usual the bigger the package the less per credit you pay. At 2000 credits you pay 95 cents per credit. Not to bad. One the other end, the 10 credit package, works out to $1.30 per credit. Still not bad considering what the traditional stock agencies are still asking for several hundred, if not thousands, of dollars for use of an image.

On top of that they now also offer a subscription service. Perfect for people who need to budget a set amount each month. I haven't had a subscription download yet but I figure it will take time to for people to adjust. I'm interested to see how it all plays out.

We have also been promised that the business cards, a supposed perk for exclusives, will be starting back up in "Summer 08". This perk has been a sore spot for many. They were promised but delivery times and quality were terrible. The whole program ground to a halt last year when the printer couldn't deliver tons of orders. That was after changing from having images on 2 sides to images on only 1. I've been due to get new cards for almost a year but I didn't dare order as they were having problems with the codes.

Each card was supposed to have a code that allowed the member to get 3 free credits. The problem with that was that some codes weren't working, and people who had older cards, like me, the codes were considered obsolete. If my clients couldn't get free credits then I might as well give them my personal business cards so that they don't associate the bad service with me as a business person.

The final change is still in the F5 stage. For those not from the Istock world I'll explain. It means that the administrators have hinted that something will be coming but have not provided any details yet. They do this with every announcement. They claim it's so that the competition can't get a hold of the info and come up with their version before the launch. I think it has more to do with the administrators wanting to watch how the members get all into a frenzy over every hint of an announcement. I gave up on being excited about the F5 scenarios when, after months of anticipation, the big announcement turned out to be that I had to completely restructure my portfolio because they changed the way keywords were done. This was enforced by several announcements of programs that I was not eligible to participate in. Ironic isn't it.

They spent weeks building up a fuss over stuff that even an exclusive couldn't participate in. I guess we'll wait to see what the next big thing is.

Here are pictures from the opening of the MGM Grand at Foxwoods. I have no idea who most of these people are. If you feel free to pass on the info. Thanks! I have some other images as well but keep getting an error when I try to upload them. Oh, I guess there just people who won't be getting seen anytime soon.

The lion is just outside the theater and is animatronic. The table setting is from Tom Colicchio's restaurant, Craftsteak.

I don't usually even try to cover celebrity events because I'm really just not that up on who's who. But the last two nights were very different.

I was invited to attend the Black Tie event for the opening of the MGM Grand at Foxwoods  in Mashantucket, CT. It was wild. It was wonderful. LB danced with the Little Foxes Dance troupe on Friday night. All three restaurants were open but not for normal business. Instead they set up tastings that they brought around to the various tables. It was wonderful.

Sinced I had to wear a gown I also had to wear heels. 1/2 through the night my feet were killing me so I kicked off my shoes and then walked around barefoot. I figured it someone fussed over it I would put them back on. Then we got hungry.

We went to Tom Colicchio's new restaurant Craftsteak. As we walked in QB tried to get my attention. As I turned to talk to him said "In the white coat.." and pointed. My eye followed his finger to a figure seated with a group a men in suits. "That's Tom," I heard as the figure suddenly jumped up and was walking straight at me. 4 steps later Tom Colicchio was standing right in front of me. ME! With my shoes slung over my arm and my camera in my hand. I couldn't move. He looked from me to the camera and then said, "I gotta go." and darted past me into the kitchen. I just stood there not entirely sure what had just happened.

When I caught my breath I put my shoes back on and started cursing the fact that that would have been a great shot if I hadn't gotten star struck. The funny part was that I knew I would probably see him or other celebrities at the event so I'm not sure why it confounded me.

I do have to say that dinner was very good.

Sat night had a different feel to it. There was to be a red carpet walk just outside the theater. I got there early and got a great spot, or as good as you can get when bodyguards make a point to block fans from taking pictures. I got a lot of pictures of people that I have no idea who they are. I discovered that paparazzi work really is just not my thing. Maybe if I was actually up with the press it would have been different but having to fight the bodyguards on side and the hysterical fans on the other was a really just not fun.

I missed shots of Jamia Nash and Charice. But did catch the side of Micheal Douglas's head, Jamia Nash's father? (or whoever the guy with her was, Micheal Schlow, Josh Groban, John Mayer, and Quincy Jones. I also got a bunch of people that I have no idea who they are.

I'm googling the reports of the night to in order to try to identify who the other people are. Another reason why I really shouldn't try to do paparazzi work.

Oh well. I did get some good shots even if I have no clue who they are.

Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. We all know the song. But do you know about the organization?

NILMDTS is an organization which offers free photographic services to families who have children that are terminal. Many of our clients only live a a few hours, if at all, after birth. It's our job to make sure that the parents have touching portraits of their children to share with loved ones and friends during this tragic time in their lives.

To learn how you can become a NILMDTS photographer or sponsor please see the website.

Affiliatephotographer

Yesterday I had a shoot with Ravenstarrsnowy MM #371494. It went really well. We wondered around the local area and just had a blast. Here's some shots from that shoot.

I've been wanting a set of barn doors for a while now. I finally decided to go ahead and get them from Alien Bee which is where I got my lights from. I also picked up another 400 and a stand for it. They have discontinued the wireless remote system I was using so I have to purchase all new remotes and receivers. They are a little more expensive then the old remotes but AB is offering a buy back program for the old ones. This means that I'll get my money for all the old remotes that I had purchased and it will be applied to the new remotes.

A company that understands the concept of customer service. I love this! AB has always had great customer service though. Many companies could learn a thing or two from them.

A while back I purchased a package set from them of lights and stands. A few days ago one of the adjustment knobs just broke off. Don't know what happened but it snapped. I emailed AB to see if the stand was still within warranty.

It wasn't but they have another collar and offered to mail it to me anyway. That is so cool. Needless to say all of lights and lighting accessories (except for my flash diffuser) are AB. This company works hard to keep their customers happy so I have no problem calling myself a proud customer.

I can't wait for my stuff to come in. As usual my budget can't afford my desires. LOL Now that I have the barn doors on order I also want strip lights. But that will be for another purchase.