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Art vs. Craft

I am not, in fact, an artist at all. At best, assignment photographers are craftsmen, not artists, solving other people’s problems and putting other people’s ideas into effect in the most timely and cost-effective way possible; to think otherwise is delusional. Sure, part of the job is bringing a personal point of view to the party, in fact that’s often the reason you’re hired, but a point of view is not art, and there’s never the degree of autonomy and self-direction that I think of as a precondition for something to qualify as a truly artistic endeavour.

via Art vs. Craft | planet shapton.

What Happens When Photography Becomes A Commodity?

by A Photo Editor on September 19, 2012

 I believe much of photography is already a commodity and I plan to speak about it during the ASMP Symposium next Thursday the 27th in New York at the Times Center. The topic for the event (more details here) is “Sustainable Business Models: Issues and Trends Facing Visual Artists” which is a topic I’ve been thinking and writing about since I started this blog. the ASMP goes on to say “the rules of the game have changed and it’s no longer business as usual in today’s crowded visual arts marketplace” which to me leads to an obvious conclusion: photography is a commodity.

Commodification is a scary thought. It means you are competing on price and racing to the bottom.
Ok, so that’s the bad news. But, there’s an upside. Before we get to that, let’s destroy this cliché that I hear all the time how “photographers brought it on”, because they didn’t do something to prevent it. All the bitching and whining about weak willed photographers who wont hold the line and clients who wont pay the fees. Commodification is a natural market process. You cannot stop this.
To see the upside you need to take a more nuanced view of photography. You need to consider photography services a value chain and the act of taking a picture, what I like to call being a “camera operator”, as one part of this value chain. You also need to understand that commodification occurs when the improvements to a product overshoot the needs of the client. Better equipment and techniques matter little to the majority of clients. There will always be exceptions, but sadly, it seems we are all past the point of good enough (even if in some parts of the industry good enough is distirbingly low). Nevertheless, don’t dwell on it. Technology that blew your mind ten years ago is now completely commodified. It can’t be stopped.

The upside is that if you have commodification, somewhere else in the value chain a reciprocal process of de-commoditization is at work. In the book I’m reading now (The Innovator’s Solution) author Clayton M. Christensen goes on to say that “commoditization destroys a company’s ability to capture profits by undermining differentiability, de-commoditization affords opportunities to create and capture potentially enormous wealth.”

You just have to find the spot in the value chain where performance is not yet good enough, where you can differentiate yourself by being better than the others. Exciting, right?
I have lots of thoughts on this that I will get into during the symposium but here’s one simple observation.

Not too long ago your personality mattered little in photography. You could be the most abhorrent dick-wad and land all the work you wanted if your photography was awesome. I see plenty of evidence now that this is not longer possible. An art director I sat on a panel with even said “the top 5 photographers for a car shoot are all qualified to do the job. it comes down to personality as to who will get the job” Personality is one tiny part of the value chain, but it’s now more important than the photography. That’s astounding.

Sad if you enjoy operating cameras, but very exciting if you enjoy the entire value chain of photography services. My favorite photographers to work with have always been the creative problem solvers. Now I can clearly see the de-commodization at work.

Pepsi Final Art

Athletic Shoot for Getty Images.

Perhaps Many Photographers Don’t Understand The Value Of Usage

Sited from A Photo Editor.com By Rob Haggart.

A reader sent me this story, so that it might instill confidence in young photographers like herself. I think you will find that it does that:

I worked with one of the local college’s ex-students on a shoot for a magazine editorial about a year ago. The ex-student lied about having my permission and gave the image to the college, which then used the image on a billboard advertisement that wraps around a 20 story building on a very busy road in the city. It is a recognizable image of mine, and shows the faces of two models from a local agency. It was actually one of the models who spotted it first and I received a very embarrassing phone call from her agent who asked me how that shoot ended up on a billboard.

I went online and researched some suggestions of how I could handle this, but I couldn’t find much available. Crawling through some forums, I found that a few photographers had their images stolen and placed on a billboard, and they charged $500 for the use. The billboard was already up there for 1.5 months and it was supposed to be up there for 3 months total. I called the model agency and they told me that they ended up with $1500 for each girl for a year’s usage. They said that they knew the figure was low, but at least they would receive some pocket money.

I also consulted with a couple of local creative agencies who also offered some advice. They were helpful at first, although once they started talking to the college they decided to back off. I think they probably thought it wasn’t worth it (despite that I offered them the incentive of a commission). They were perhaps scared of losing a potential client over a nobody photographer like me.

So I spoke with the college directly and they asked me to come in to discuss this and negotiate a pay-out. I didn’t want to go in – I couldn’t see a reason to apart from them using this opportunity to intimidate me. They were a little manipulative over the phone, suggesting that my photograph would potentially be featured there for 12 months and it would be great exposure for me if I didn’t charge too much. I offered them $1500 per month, which they thought was ridiculous (I thought what they paid the model agency was ridiculous!). They told me the billboard space was only costing them $2700 per month. So I said I’d seek further advice and come back with a figure. They were desperate to get me to come in.

After much research, I found that it’s tricky to put a price on usage. I found the best advice to be 10 – 30% of the marketing budget (from small to large scale). In this scenario, they hadn’t commissioned this shoot and it wasn’t just about using my image, it was also the humiliation I went through explaining to my team members (particularly the model agency) how the image got into the advertiser’s hands. It also concerns the disassociation of my image to me (now known as the face of that college and it impacts my professionalism – even the creative agency that I sought advice from assumed I stupidly gave the files to the college (I had given them to the ex-student to use for his portfolio).

So I went with my gut instinct, and ended up charging them a figure that I thought was fair. I wrote them a letter a week later, explaining my situation, the inconvenience this has caused me, my humiliation to those involved, and that I thought after all this the figure was fair. I stuck with this:
2.5 months and they take the image down – $1500 per month = $3750
3 months – $1500 per month, $4500
12 months – $1250 per month, $15000

In the end, they decided they wanted my image for 12 months. After a few emails back and forth, I ended up settling on $9000. That’s ok, it’s a little less than what I was asking for but it’s a little more than 30% of their budget for the billboard space, I didn’t want to pursue this any further so I was happy to settle on that. They even offered me the incentive for future work with them.

After a google search, it seems like this problem occurs often and perhaps many photographers don’t understand the value of usage.

Photo Biz: Do Your CODB to Create Your Pricing

Being in business as a photographer, you have to know your CODB, because that’s how you set your Baseline Creative Fee (BCF). If you take jobs that are below your CODB, you are operating at a loss. You should also do your CODB every year to make sure you’re staying on track and to set sales goals.

In a very simple formula, this is how you calculate your CODB:

(YOUR SALARY + YOUR EXPENSES) ÷ SHOOT DAYS PER YEAR = DAILY CODB

Fortunately, there’s an easy way to calculate your CODB and it takes less than 30 minutes to do. You will need two things: Your Profit & Loss Statement from last year and NPPA’s Online CODB Calculator. If you use accounting software like Quickbooks (PC / Mac) or AccountEdge (Mac), it’s really easy to generate you P&L report. Make one and print it off. Then click over to NPPA’s Online CODB Calculator.

For this exercise, I’m using some numbers that I would consider to be average for an emerging photographer in a medium market (i.e. not NYC or LA) and is making a living solely from their photography. This photographer wants to make $50,000 a year, has a small office, no employees, no family to support, and someone who shoots a mix of editorial, commercial and stock. Let’s assume they will shoot 50 billable days in a year (that’s around 4 shoots a month). Here’s how there CODB breaks out. Note: CODB should be calculated on business expenses, not shoot expenses. So leave out any reimbursed expenses like assistants, travel, food, etc.

Click to Enlarge

If we plug these numbers into our formula, it looks like this:

($50,000 + $44,930) ÷ 50 = $1,798.60

$1,800 is their CODB. So, if this photographer shoots any job that pays less than $1,800, they are losing money. Pure and Simple.

So, now that we know the photographer’s CODB, here are some methods to create a fee structure.

Creating a Fee Structure Based on CODB

It’s been my experience that every assignment is different and your fees need to flexible to accommodate the needs of the job and your client’s budget. I have found three good ways to create your creative fee:

1. A Day Rate
2. A Sliding Scale Per Shot Rate
3. A Project Rate

There’s no one way that works better than another. If the number of shots is very specific, a per shot rate works best. If the number of shots is unknown, but you’re going to be on location for 10 days, then a day rate is more suited. If the shoot is documentary style project where you’ll be shooting a small number of times over various weeks, then a project rate makes more sense.

Using the example photographer’s CODB of $1800, your Baseline Creative Fee (BCF) would be:

1. $1800/day
2. $450/shot*
3. $1800+/- project

The day rate is pretty straight forward. You shoot three days, you charge for three days. The project rate is trickier to figure out because you have to predict how much time you will spend doing the project. Make sure you get as much info before you start shooting. *The per shot rate would get very expensive if you did 20 shots in a day. So, that’s why I do that on a sliding scale:

	Price Each	Rounded	Range
1-3 Shots	$450.00	$450	$450	$1,350
4-9 Shots	$315.00	$325	$1,300	$2,925
10-14 Shots	$252.00	$250	$2,500	$3,500
15-20 Shots	$226.80	$225	$3,375	$4,500
21+ Shots	$204.12	$200	$4,200+

Using any one of these methods is how you create your Baseline Creative Fee (BCF).

Baseline Creative Fee + Usage Fees

I like to think of the BCF as your local rate. The usage included with that rate would be something like the following:

Use in any marketing materials distributed to a targeted audience. Includes use in printed brochure, catalog, annual report, public relations and sales material. Also includes electronic (PDF) versions of the original printed uses. Use in any web and electronic media for advertising and promotional purposes including website, web banner ad, promotional email and mobile ad.

Side note: check out PLUS Packs if you need help writing your usage terms.

The usage above is basically everything a local client is going to use your photos for. If they do advertising as well, you may want to charge a little more, like 10%.

There are four basic types of clients: Local, Regional, National, and Global. Here’s how I would handle the usage fee markups based on a BCF of $1,800.

• Local Web & Marketing Usage: $1,800
• Local Ad, Web, & Marketing Usage: $1,800 x 1.1 = $1,980
• Regional Web & Marketing Usage: $1,800 x 2 = $3,600
• Regional Ad, Web & Marketing Usage: $3,600 x 1.5 = $5,400
• National Web & Marketing: $1,800 x 10 = $18,000
• National Ad, Web & Marketing Usage: $18,000 x 1.5 = $27,000
• Global Web & Marketing: $1,800 x 20 = $36,000
• Global Ad, Web & Marketing Usage: $36,000 x 1.5 = $54,000

So, there it is in a nutshell. Please remember, this is a guide and it’s more to illustrate that doing your Cost of Doing Business is vitally important to being in business. Use this example as a way to wrap your brain around what your creative fee should be and why it costs more for Pepsi to use your photos than it does for the local mom & pop shop. There’s always room to negotiate, too. Don’t live and die by these numbers.

I will say that ever since I standardized my pricing, I’ve gotten more jobs that pay better. It’s also made creating estimates a lot easier, because I charge what I need to charge to stay in business. I also feel good about passing on jobs that don’t pay my CODB, because that gives me time to market to jobs that will pay 10 or 20 times my CODB.

(YOUR SALARY + YOUR EXPENSES) ÷ SHOOT DAYS PER YEAR = DAILY CODB

Lincoln Barbour has a great post on Cost of Doing Business for Photographers.

Being in business as a photographer, you have to know your CODB, because that’s how you set your Baseline Creative Fee (BCF). If you take jobs that are below your CODB, you are operating at a loss. You should also do your CODB every year to make sure you’re staying on track and to set sales goals.

In a very simple formula, this is how you calculate your CODB:

(YOUR SALARY + YOUR EXPENSES) ÷ SHOOT DAYS PER YEAR = DAILY CODB

Fortunately, there’s an easy way to calculate your CODB and it takes less than 30 minutes to do. You will need two things: Your Profit & Loss Statement from last year and NPPA’s Online CODB Calculator. If you use accounting software like Quickbooks (PC / Mac) or AccountEdge (Mac), it’s really easy to generate you P&L report. Make one and print it off. Then click over to NPPA’s Online CODB Calculator.

Not only discussing how to calculate it but also how to base your fees on it. Go here to read the post.

How Long Until Pinterest Is Sued Into Oblivion Like Napster?

Pinterest, the hot new social sharing platform has a serious problem when it comes to the medium it’s designed to share. Despite careful wording on their about page that you agree not to post, upload, publish, submit, provide access to or transmit any content that infringes, misappropriates or violates a third party’s copyright… many (most) of the images on the site do just that. Several lawyers have weighed in on the controversy advising:

“…you should never pin an image on Pinterest for which you don’t own the copyright interest or for which you have not obtained a license from the copyright owner.”

– Jonathan Pink, a California-based intellectual property lawyer with Bryan Cave LLP via, WSJ.

Federal copyright laws give the author of any copyrighted work (which includes photographs and copyright attaches automatically as soon as the work is created) the sole and exclusive right to publish and reproduce such work. So, basically, when you see a photograph that you love, you do not have any right to publish or reproduce that photograph unless you took the photo or got consent from the photographer to use the photo.

…in my humble opinion, the only “safe” conclusion here, for me, is to either get off of Pinterest or pin only your own work or work you have a license to use.

– Kirsten Kowalski via, ddkportraits.com

If that’s not enough, Pinterest CEO and co-founder Ben Silbermann has completely deleted his boards: http://pinterest.com/ben/ even though he was named #2 in a list of 21 must follow Pinterest users on mashable.com.

On the flip side we have a very exciting way to share photography that some photographers like:

Photographers need to look beyond their own nose when it comes to social media web sites and copyright concerns. I’ve written about a fair number of photography rights grabs here on my blog and there have certainly been cases where there have been egregious violations of copyright that photographers should have been concerned about. By and large Pinterest has not proven to me they fit in that category. In addition social media web sites and the Internet as a whole are great tools to be exploited by photographers. Don’t be afraid of having your work seen. If you look beyond your own nose you’ll see these new tools and sites can be creatively applied to enhance your business versus kill it. Being creative isn’t just about taking photos its about creatively enabling your work to be found.

– Jim M. Goldstein via, Pinterest – Seeing beyond your own nose

I even have it on good authority that top creative directors are actively pinning and competing to have the most creative boards. My source tells me that it’s not impossible to imagine a future where your pin board is part of your resume.

So, I agree that there’s potential here to make a great service for sharing, driving traffic to, and bookmarking photographers. But they just haven’t figured out how to do it without running afoul of copyright laws.

Then there’s the separate matter of their heinous terms:

We may, in our sole discretion, permit Members to post, upload, publish, submit or transmit Member Content. By making available any Member Content through the Site, Application or Services, you hereby grant to Cold Brew Labs a worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free license, with the right to sublicense, to use, copy, adapt, modify, distribute, license, sell, transfer, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit, stream, broadcast, access, view, and otherwise exploit such Member Content only on, through or by means of the Site, Application or Services. Cold Brew Labs does not claim any ownership rights in any such Member Content and nothing in these Terms will be deemed to restrict any rights that you may have to use and exploit any such Member Content.

Facebook has similar terms:

For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.

And so does Twitter:

By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through the Services, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute such Content in any and all media or distribution methods (now known or later developed).

My prediction is that before they get sued into oblivion they will figure out a reasonable way to get it to work. But for those who think whiny photographers or outdated copyright laws are to blame, I’ll leave you with one last set of quotes to chew on:

For the first 1,500 years of the last two millennia, man was generally poor. Though there were empires and kingdoms, the gross world product (GWP) was largely flat. For generations, people did not experience any major change in their living standards.

And then something changed: the Western world introduced stronger property rights, including intellectual property rights, which allowed people to pursue new ideas, firm in the knowledge that success could bring financial rewards.

Today, all of the contemporary advanced economies have strong property rights, and data shows a strong correlation between property rights, productivity, living standards and innovation.

via Ndubuisi Ekekwe – Harvard Business Review.

Is A Payday In Photography Like Playing Lottery

There’s an excellent piece in the NY Times last week titled “Why Are Harvard Graduates in the Mailroom?” that talks about the number of professions where workers accept lower-paying jobs in exchange for a slim but real chance of a large, future payday. Drug dealers have rich kingpins supported by hard working street-corner guys, ambitious accountants toil away at big firms in hopes of making partner, silicon valley startups use stock options to entice young people into working for free, Warner Brothers mailroom clerks accept $25,000 to $35,000 a year in hopes of making a meteoric leap like Barry Diller or David Geffen did, and aspiring actors watch rich people hand each other golden statues on TV each year with dreams of joining their ranks someday.

Certainly we can all see how photography fits nicely in the lottery model where there are a neat group of successful photographers at the top, a few jobs here and there that hint at a big payoff, but putting together a career in photography is harder and more lottery like than it looks. What’s really interesting and counter intuitive about the piece is how this lottery system is actually a good idea. It encourages hard work and attracts lots of potential candidates, but only lets the most tenacious through. The problem, as the NY Times notes, is that the comfortable plan B jobs are disappearing. Solid plan B jobs allow you to go for it and if it doesn’t work out you still have something interesting to fall back on for a career:

New York City and Los Angeles are buoyed by teachers, store owners, arts administrators and others who came to town to make it big in film or music or publishing, eventually gave up on that dream and ended up doing fine in another field.

I received this email recently from a reader who was dismayed at all the commenters on this blog who only look at photography as a six figure job:

I love your blog, but I am disappointed in your reader’s comments. Specifically on the article “Is editorial photography dead?“. Most of the photographers that comment fiercely oppose anyone trying to become a professional photographer and it is quite a deterrent for someone like myself just starting out. I read all the comments trying to understand where they are coming from, but I can’t, because it seems like your commenters are all photographers who used to make six figures. I was raised in a family who never made a six figure income, in fact none of my family ever went to college—I was the first. For me a good job is an income of not much more than $30,000 a year.

What your commenters don’t realize is that many people are happy making less. I have worked for several city magazines and I’ve found that they struggle to find ANY photographers to work with. It seems like most people only consider themselves successful if they work for major publications. I would love for you to highlight someone who is successful in their hometown, based on finding work at smaller magazines and local work. Many times the magazines I work with can’t even find journalists. I think smaller publications are often overlooked because they don’t pay tens of thousands of dollars for photo shoots, but I recently got a gig with one that paid over $3,000 and for just starting out, it was huge for me.

My point is, I just don’t think people actually look for the work, they expect it to come to them. I think many photographers, like other artists, are too snobby to actually go find a job. Instead, they expect publications to find them.

Did my reader miss the point of looking at photography as a high paying career? The lottery system produces talented, hardworking and tenacious photographers. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

The NY Times goes on to say:

It’s not clear what today’s eager 23-year-old will do in 5 or 10 years when she decides that acting (or that accounting partnership) isn’t going to work out after all. The best advice may be to accept that economic success in America will come as much from the labor lottery as from hard work and tenacity. The Oscars make clear that there is only so much room at the top. In a lottery-based economy, you need some luck, too; now, perhaps, more than ever. People should be prepared to enter a few different lotteries, because the new Plan B is just going to be another long shot in a different field.

The plan B in photography was a mid-level career, but now we see photographers who test the waters in video, writing, publishing and teaching. Looking to enter as many lotteries as possible. Seems like a smart plan.

by A Photo Editor on February 28, 2012 · 46 comments

Dining Out Magazine

Studio Timelapse.

This was taken during a recent shoot in studio.

A Basin Opens for 2011 Season.

Published on October 14, 2011 @ 10:00 am

By First Tracks!! Online Media

Arapahoe Basin, CO – More Colorado ski resorts launched into the 2011-12 season this week. Arapahoe Basin opened their lifts for the season at 9 a.m. Thursday morning, followed today by nearby Loveland Ski Area. In the state’s southwest corner, Wolf Creek will re-open tomorrow for its second weekend of skiing and riding

Arapahoe Basin’s snowmaking team worked relentlessly over the past week to produce snow for Thursday’s opening. The snowmakers’ efforts were complemented by early snowfalls in the area, including several fresh inches over the past week. Skiers and riders enjoyed an 18-inch base, and Black Mountain Express escorted guests to the intermediate High Noon run, and several features in the High Divide Terrain Park.

Perched on the Continental Divide, Arapahoe Basin and Loveland enjoy an elevation conducive to making snow and keeping conditions fresh for long periods of time. With a late season July 4 closing after one of the longest seasons in 14 years, Arapahoe Basin opened on Thursday after having been closed this summer for only 100 days.

“After an impressive season that extended for 10 months last year, it’s exciting that resorts are starting lifts and offering skiing in October,” said Melanie Mills, president and CEO of Colorado Ski Country USA (CSCUSA). “Having three resorts open at this point in the year gives people even more options and hopefully encourages people to take advantage of the natural playgrounds Colorado offers.”

Today's Daily Meditation.

A simple shift in attitude can help us recognize the hidden potential for fulfillment in every event.


There is no secret recipe for happiness and contentment. The individuals who move through life joyously have not necessarily been blessed with lives of abundance, love, success, and prosperity. Such people have, however, been blessed with the ability to take the circumstances they‚ve been handed and make them into something great. Our individual realities are colored by perception˜delight and despair come from within rather than without. Situations we regard as fortuitous please us while situations we judge inauspicious cause us no end of grief. Yet if we can look at all we have accomplished without dwelling on our perceived misfortune and make each new circumstance our own, the world as a whole becomes a brighter place. A simple shift in attitude can help us recognize and unearth the hidden potential for personal and outer world fulfillment in every event, every relationship, every duty, and every setback.

The universe is often an unpredictable and chaotic place, and the human tendency is to focus on the negative and assume the positive will care for itself. But life can be no more or no less than what you make of it. If you are working in a job you dislike, you can concentrate on the positive aspects of the position and approach your work with gusto. What can you do with this job that can turn it around so you do love it. When faced with the prospect of undertaking a task you fear, you can view it as an opportunity to discover what you are truly capable of doing. Similarly, unexpected events, when viewed as surprises, can add flavor to your existence. By choosing to love life no matter what crosses your path, you can create an atmosphere of jubilance that is wonderfully infectious. A change in perspective is all it takes to change your world, but you must be willing to adopt an optimistic, hopeful mind-set.

To make a conscious decision to be happy is not enough. You must learn to observe life‚s complexities through the eyes of a child seeing everything for the first time. You must furthermore divest yourself of preconceived notions of what is good and what is bad so that you can appreciate the rich insights concealed in each stage of your life‚s journey. And you must strive to discover the dual joys of wanting what you have. As you gradually shift your perspective, your existence will be imbued with happiness and contentment that will remain with you forever.

DJ Luar

MACCSI Museum and Sonik Boom Records Presents

Sesion Sonora: Dj Luar - Ojo Fatuo in Venezuela

Come and Enjoy this show at the MACCSI Main Stage

December 1st 2011

Private Lightning Show
We will give away 300 C.D.’s to the first 300 people

* Luar Aka Ojo Fatuo Djluar

Colorado’s Techno Dance Music Record Label
Sonik boom records
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Beta Nightclub
Denver Nightclub Tips

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Dark Tekno - Minimal -Trance
November 5th 2010
At the Beatport Lounge

Dance Music, Minimal Tekno

You can check out his new music at
Electronic Music Record Label
Denver Nightclub Tips

Electro house Dj, Progressive House and Trance Dj, Dj Luar (Also Known As Ojo Fatuo) has been in the scene for many years, Winning Cannes Festival Best Shortfilm in 1999(Drama-Music), International Dj, Spinning Around the World. Ojo Fatuo was elected the Best Electro Music Dj During 1999 to 2001 in Venezuela. He is Living in Denver and actually He is the "1 DJ In Colorado State, United States and the Dj #341 in the World Ranking by thedjlist.com/ :
http://thedjlist.com/world/United_States/Denver/
http://thedjlist.com/djs/OJO_FATUO/

Luar Aleman was the father of the electronic music in Venezuela and He became famous after a 12 days of non-stop music party that he realized in his country in a small town in 1998 called "Patanemo" "Total Eclipse 98", where he shared stage with the European Electronic Music Movement and big DJ's Names. To this party came 1000 people from around Europe, including Cosma Shiva, Nina Hagen's daughter.

"Denver 2 Hours Before Rising", is a combination between Tech House and Trance Music, expressing his particular melodic sound combine with the pounding sound of the Trance Music. He was elected best Dj in His country and now he is Back with his new production. He will release his new full album on The summer of 2010: "Transitions"

He is working as a Dj and Music Production Teacher at "The International Media Insitute". DJ Electro House DJ, DJ Progressive House DJ, DJ Music, Trance Music, House Music Dj, Free Download Music, Cannes Festival Winner, International Dj, Shortfilm winner, Djluar, Progressive House Dj, Ojo fatuo

Luar - Dramachild - Imminent Domain - Minimal Dark Tekno

Colorado photographer's work to be featured on 2012 stamp set

By Jordan Steffen
The Denver Post

Posted: 08/31/2011 01:19:38 PM MDT

Updated: 08/31/2011 01:25:58 PM MDT

In 2012 the U.S. Postal Service will release the Earthscapes series of stamps. The images were taken from aircraft and Earth-observing satellites. For the stamp "butte in early morning fog," Jim Wark of Pueblo shot an image as fog rolled in and around Stagecoach Butte, one of the many red sandstone formations rising from the floor of the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park in southeastern Utah. (Special to the Denver Post | U.S. Postal Service)

Jim Wark in November 2002 (Special to the Post | courtesy Jim Wark)

In more than 20 years Jim Wark has taken thousands of photos from the view point of his single-engine plane.

Next year, five of them will be featured in the U.S. Postal Service's stamp set, Earthscapes, which will be issued October 2012.

The set features 15 stamps showcasing a variety of American landscapes taken from aircraft and satellites, according to a news release.

Wark's photos, taken between 1990 and 2007, include photos of natural landscapes from Yellowstone National Park and Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park in southeast Utah, and industrial scenes from Pennsylvania, Texas and New York City.

The postal service contacted Wark in 2007, and the selection process began, he said.

The 80-year-old

Earthscapes

• Take a closer look at the Earthscapes stamps.

retired geologist and mining engineer, now owns Airphoto photography in Pueblo. He has produced nine books of aerial photos, three of which are set to be released this fall.

In past years, The Denver Post commissioned Wark for a number of projects.

Wark learned to fly while serving in the Navy from 1954 to 1958, and his family has a long line of photographers that started in Ireland in 1850, he said.

"After I retired from the corporate world, I combined my passion for the two," Wark said.

One of the photos featured in the stamps set - Butte in the early morning - was taken in Utah and was one of Wark's first professional aerial photographs.

"The butte was so beautiful on that trip," Wark said. "It's kind of what got me started and made me think I could make a living out of this."

Since then, Wark has shot aerial photographs in every state - including Alaska and Hawaii - every Canadian province, Mexico and Costa Rica.

Wark said some of his favorite trips were to the Alaskan wilderness, where he would spend weeks camping in his plane.

"As a pilot, I can tell you that it takes a lot of nerve, going to a distant place where there is nothing," said John Wark​, Jim Wark's 52-year-old son.

John Wark said he and his father started studying photography at the same time, and have spent years refining their techniques together.

Five years ago, Wark earned his own pilot's license and has continued to learn from his father.

Wark owns Wark Photography in Pueblo, and sees his father three or four times a week, he said. Wark said his father still does most of his work with film instead of a digital camera. Wark develops most of his father's photos at his lab.

"One of the nicest aspects of working with my dad is he is a very constructive person to work around, and that goes with everything in my life with him - personal, flying and photography."

Jordan Steffen: 303-954-1794 or jsteffen@denverpost.com

America's top model contestant.

Just this week I got a call from a young model who was in need of three polaroids and a three minute video of herself her entry into America's Top Model. This girl is going to be a star. Alexis was so much fun, it was a pleasure to have the opportunity to work with her. I wish her the best with her entry. I'm sure she will wow the judges. Here is here 90 second video response to why she thinks she should be America's Top Model.

Copy Right Issues.

Can Copyright Be Bad For Photography?

I don’t want to get on a jag about copyright infringement here, but a lawsuit filed this week against Ryan McGinley illustrates how copyright can potentially impinge artist’s creative expression if taken too far.

Rachel Corbett of ArtNet.com writes:

Artist Janine “Jah Jah” Gordon has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against photographer Ryan McGinley for copyright infringement, arguing that 150 of McGinley’s photographs, including several used in an ad campaign for Levi’s, a co-defendant in the suit, are “substantially based” on Gordon’s original work.

There’s a lot of emotion wrapped up in this case as Janine and Ryan have both shown at the Whitney and several prominent galleries where Janine says he had “access to view and examine” her images. Additionally, when ArtInfo.com contacted Janine (here) she says she has been begging McGinley to stop copying her work since the 1990′s through dealer and close friend Chris Perez. Also, noted was an incident according to the complaint in 2003, when she ran into him at a PS1 opening and he responded with “a fearful gasp and speedy retreat into the crowd.” Like I said, it’s very emotional. McGinley’s prints also sell for 4 times the amount of his older more established counterpart.

The complaint alleges that he copied her subject matter, lighting, composition and ideas:

There’s no doubt in my mind that seeing Ryan McGinley come up on your heels and churn out similar looking images would be a painful experience. But, this is where copyright hurts photographers. There’s nothing that hasn’t been done before so if you’re not allowed to draw inspiration from and take little parts of other photographers and artists work there’s nothing to take pictures of. I think the case will be impossible to prove in court, but I would guess the point is not to win but to raise awareness, get him to stop and go somewhere else for inspiration.

My future wife.

Vail Signage.