Photo Business Links 090802

From MicrostockGroup.com: Sad day for photographers. This is a thread started by a photographer who, after seeing one of his quite sellable images get rejected by one of his agents, begins a heartfelt rant against the devaluation of photography. It’s an interesting read, but I would caution against going deep into the thread unless you like bloodsports. *(OK, it’s not that bad; but I did hear the sounds of heads banging into walls.)

Now, if you really want to read how that same photographer, Mark Stout feels in greater depth, and you have a few minutes, head over to his own blog and have a really good read on the sudject of photography and the concept of value.

And from The Future of Journalism: Photog thrilled to get peanuts from Time. You know you still can’t get enough of the raging fires of controversy brought forth by the TIME Magazine cover.

Another from Rosh Sillars: Restart Business Building Program. If your creative batteries are running on low, this free audio program is offered through his Prosperous Artist Academy and is a series of eight short audio files and exercises designes to put that spark back into the cylinders and get your creative motor running back in gear. Compared to many of the fee progroms hawked by other photography marketing coaches, it’s great to see Rosh giving this small program out with open arms. – And yes, Rosh also has a more intensive pay-for-it program if you need a stronger whack upside the back of your creative noggin.

From the New York Times: A Small-Business Guide to Intellectual Property. “…when the subject of intellectual property comes up, many [business] owners run in the other direction. They see images [sic: pun] of expensive lawyers and use that as an excuse to ignore the topic, reasoning that it is a problem for big companies to worry about. The trouble is, with the rise of competition through the Internet and on the global market, understanding intellectual property is more critical than ever for small-business owners.” – Special thanks to fellow photographer Ellis Vener for posting this and bringing it to my attention on my Facebook page.

From John Lund: Creating A Social Media Stock Photo. John is a master of the conceptual business stock photo. If someone were to ask you, “quick, make a stock photo about social networking” what would you come up with as an idea? Check out the great image John came up with on his weblog.

And finally, Syl Arena continues his fabulous series, Lessons I Didn’t Learn In Photo School. My favorite from this group is #86, Embrace stress as the opposite of apathy.

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Bonus Link(s): Feeling the heat from the economy, business stress, etc.? TIME Online has an article called, ‘Eco-Therapy’ for Environmental Depression. But if after all the hoopla over the TIME cover photo you feel like going on a self-imposed embargo, let me refer you to a link my friend Michael Gordon posted in his blog to AARP’s article, Nature: It’s good for the mind and good for the body. Of course, if you feel you’re too young & hip to read AARP, you can always go back to the TIME article.