Rosh Sillars Lecture, Wednesday Night

Pittsburgh ASMP chapter is sponsoring a lecture on March 25th at 6PM with internet social networking expert, Rosh Sillars.  The lecture is open to the public and I have a feeling it should be very interesting.  As of late, I have been spending a large amount of time blogging, Facebooking, networking on LinkedIn and web browsing in general as an attempt to increase my photo assignments and re-connect with former clients, art directors, designers and long lost art school buddies.  It has been fun, exhausting, and interesting all at the same time.  I do have a fear that I may spend too much time doing this, but when you can't get clients to pick up their phone when you call, you have to shift to "Plan B".  I heard last week on a radio news show that for the first time in history, more people are logging on to the internet to check their social sites than are users logging on to check their email.  I'm looking forward to seeing what he has to say and meeting up with fellow Pittsburgh photographers.  Hope to see you there!

Bad News for Photographers

This information has been brewing on the pro photo forums for the past couple of days, and

it is VERY disturbing.  Ad agency giant, OMNICOM, now thinks that photographers should happily take all the risk for not getting paid by THEIR clients, like GM and who knows who else?

There aren't any photographers that I know of who can produce an auto shoot without an advance for at LEAST the expenses which can run into hundreds of thousand dollars depending on the complexity of the shoot.  This practice almost assures photographers working under these conditions will have a strong possibility of financial ruin.  It has become very apparent that much of corporate America does not believe in fiscal responsibility (see AIG...)  I urge all photographers to start demanding cash advances on ALL jobs and not just larger ones.  We simply can no longer afford to work as we have in the past.  Here is ASMP Executive Director, Gene Mopsiks view on this mess: ASMP STATEMENT