No Contest Part IV - Canadian, Eh?

I don't know if you follow this kind of thing, but occasionally there's a photo contest that's not really a photo contest. Today, my beef is with a Canadian outfit called the Network for Business Sustainability in London, Ontario. Their Communications manager posted a message to one of the LinkedIn forums announcing a Photo Contest...

Photo Contest: "Cool Office Space" $300 prize. No entry fee. Submissions will be considered as they're recieved. Full contest details at www.nbs.net. Does anyone have a shot of a cool office? My organization, a Canadian non-profit called the Network for Business Sustainability, is looking for a vibrant shot capturing cool office design or an illustration of distinctive corporate culture (e.g. foosball tables in boardrooms). Full details for the contest... click here.

The web site says: "The Network for Business Sustainability must be given full rights to use the photo and any derivative works in all electronic and print materials... this image will be used on the Network’s website and in research reports, brochures, and presentations."

So I wrote back: "Is this a contest or are you looking for a stock photo without paying for a proper license? All rights in all media for $300 Canadian? That doesn't sound like a legitimate contest to me, doesn't look like a decent stock photo use fee, either."

It's a perfect example of social networking gone off the reservation. LinkedIn is supposed to be a business networking site, and their forums a place where professionals can discuss pertinent issues, trends or, simply, network. But this is really unprofessional, a request for a stock photo disguised as a contest. Have they no shame?

On Any Sunday

Sunday, August 15, 2010
Browns Stadium & Wind Turbine
Cleveland, Ohio
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Above: Canon EOS-5D Mark II, 28~105/3.5~4.5 Canon EF Ultrasonic lens, ISO 100

The "Free Umbrella" Is A Dinosaur

Got your iPad yet? I hope so. In fact, I hope you're reading my blog on your iPad, it's the perfect device for blog reading. It's also a perfect device for book reading, if you like that sort of thing. Personally, I see it as a very handy electronic gizmo, but for me it will never replace a real book. It will also never replace a real newspaper or a real magazine.

On the other hand, I may soon have no choice in the matter. Just as external pressure forced me to abandon charcoal for propane, there simply may not be any real (printed) newspapers or magazines or books in the future. You might think, because they're still a product one pays full price for based on its true cost rather than one that's subsidized by advertising, that books will survive, but I don't want to talk about that.

Actually, I do want to talk about that, but I'd rather point you to Ken Auletta's excellent story in The New Yorker... which reminded me of something else.

In his coverage of the topic, Auletta tells how Amazon has been selling e-books at a loss to gain market share and quotes a publishing executive, David Young, the chairman and C.E.O. of Hachette Book Group USA, who said, “The big concern—and it’s a massive concern—is the $9.99 pricing point. If it’s allowed to take hold in the consumer’s mind that a book is worth ten bucks, to my mind it’s game over for this business.”

Wasn't I saying something like that about the photography business back in 1995 when Getty Investment Holdings announced its purchase of PhotoDisc and then did essentially the same thing as Amazon's done? Actually, Mr. Young is much more genteel than I. If I recall correctly, I said, "if our clients get the idea a picture is only worth three bucks a pop
we're all f*¢#@d!"
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New Yorker cover illustration by Lorenzo Mattotti

For No Particular Reason - Part II (for Keith Taylor)

October 20, 2008... I posted this image on Eat At Joe's, and it's the one Keith refers to in his comment (see last post). It's kind of a rough sketch for the one in yesterday's post, a location-scouting image.

This is an image of the Brickyard tower showing the same bridge but from the other side, and very early in the morning... a bad time to be needing an ambulance!

This is another image of The Brickyard water tower, from outside Linda T's house.
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All above: Leica D-LUX 3, 28~112/2.8~4.9 Leitz DC Vario-Elmarit lens, ISO 200

For No Particular Reason

Sometimes there's no particular reason to show a picture other than I just happen to like it. These fall into that category. Above, a car slows atop a bridge over The Brickyard, Deefield, Illinois. From a series on water towers in the mid-west.

This is a portrait of my friend, Jimmy Winstead, a photographer now living in Jackson, Mississippi. He stood for this portrait in 1985 (or was it 1984?) in my studio on East 20th Street in New York City.

I think it was either a test of the lighting for a series of portraits I was making on deep grey background, emulating Denis Piel, who I assisted for a while. It could have been a test of the light bank that I built to be used in the set-up for a series of portraits I was making on deep grey background, emulating Denis Piel. Either way, Denis Piel figured-in prominently.

I had to build my own bank light because, at that time, I'd just opened my business and was strapped for cash. I couldn't afford to have one custom-built for me and I didn't like those fabric banks like Chimera and their imitators because they had a pin-cushion-like shape which I found unattractive when reflected in a surface.

Johnny Rotundi, the pizza maker at
L & B Spumoni Gardens & Pizzeria, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York City, September 1987. I was working on a project with 39 other photographers called Document: Brooklyn whereby we all worked around the clock for a week, well, at least I did. Anyway, L & B Spumoni Gardens was supposed to be the best pizza in Brooklyn. I don't know, I never got to eat any, I went broke buying the dough we consumed making the picture of Johnny tossing the dough in the air, I couldn't afford to buy a slice after the shoot. Oh well.

Everyone who knows me knows that I like to eat pizza. In fact, I make a pretty darned good pizza myself. The secret, believe it or not, is in the sauce. I don't like tomato sauce from a jar so I make my own, it's really not that difficult. Typically I'll make meatballs and spaghetti, have lots of leftovers, then make meatball pizza. Nobody in Chicago makes meatball pizza and they treat me like I'm some kind of a nut when I try to order one. Eat shit, Lou Malnati!

A jellyfish photographed on a visit to the Monterrey (California) Aquarium. My friend, Ernie Pappas, thinks it's a man o' war. To me, it's a pink sea creature in blue water. I like the color. I'm not too interested in the jellyfish except that I hope not to encounter it when I'm swimming, despite its obvious beauty. I think I'll just stay out of the ocean and swim in pools. Anyway, no particular reason to show you these, except I like the pictures. 'Nuff said.

Oh, wait, I know why I'm showing the jellyfish. Well, aside from the fact that I like the picture, my nephew Sam didn't believe me when I said I'd made killer pictures of the jellyfish. That's because he either didn't remember being with me at the aquarium or he was just too young to be aware of what it was I was doing at the time, despite the fact that he was standing right next to me. Sam's a college graduate now, so there!
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Brickyard: Canon EOS-5DII, 70~200/2.8 Canon Zoom Lens EF L Ultrasonic, ISO 100
Winstead: Nikon F, 10.5cm/2.5 Nikkor Lens, Kodak Panatomic X
Pizza: Nikon F3HP, 180/2.8 Nikkor Lens, Kodachrome 64 Professional
Jellyfish: Canon EOS-1N, 70~200/2.8 Canon Zoom Lens EF L Ultrasonic, Fujichrome Provia

Take The Last Train To Clarksville

Well... we're a month or so into the crowd-sourcing experiment by Domino's Pizza. The idea was, as shown on their television commercial, that Domino's pizza is so good they don't need professional photographers to shoot their ads, why not just send in your best snapshot of a Domino's pizza? Guess what? Judging by the pictures that have been sent in, the last thing I think of eating after looking at them is..... pizza!

The worst of them all, is the one above taken by a contributor in Clarksville, Tennessee. My favorite, for the imagination shown, is the one below. But it still doesn't want to make me eat Domino's pizza. Crowd-sourcing isn't the way to go for food ads!


And there's one more thing, as long as we're talking about Domino's. I've lived in large metropolitan areas all my life, New York City and Chicago, with lots of pizzerias in both locations. Why in the world would you order a pizza from Domino's? Aren't there any Italians where you live?