I just discovered that both NationalGeographic.com and TravelandLeisure.com have published a couple of my images in the past few months for slideshows. National Geographic used one of my pictures of Oahu, Hawaii for their "Ten Best U.S. Beaches of 2011" slideshow, and Travel+Leisure used a picture of Casco Bay, Maine off the coast of Portland for their "World's Most Beautiful Ferry Rides" slideshow.

The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opens on November 11, 2011 in Bentonville, Arkansas. Alice Walton, the daugher of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, founded and largely funded (through the Walton Family Foundation) the museum. The museum takes its name from nearby Crystal Spring and the bridge construction incorporated in the building design by world-renowned architect Moshe Safdie.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas

This torn rose petal image was recently exclusively licensed for the front cover of a book. I don't know which book. Photo agencies are kind of like the CIA... everything is on the "down low". I created it several years ago, but it was never licensed until now. It too was on the "down low". Luckily, the sale made up for its previous lack-luster earnings. "Exclusive" in "exclusively licensed" is industry parlance for "good money", not to be confused with "big money" which is the taking of photos of the famous and then naked. The order is important. If the subject is first naked and then famous, then it's "dirty money", otherwise know as porn. That's enough industry parlance for today. This particular photo was actually not taken at all but made on a flatbed scanner, otherwise known as "bed money". If you see it on a book let me know.

Torn red rose petal

"Project Imagin8ion" is the latest photo contest rip-off in a sad, long line of rights grabs to screw unwitting photographers.

"Project Imagin8ion is the first user-generated photo contest in history to inspire a Hollywood short film. Over the next month, Ron Howard, with the help of Canon and the Project Imagin8ion community will select 8 imaginative photos to set the stage for his next production. These 8 winning photos will inspire the 8 movie themes for this film: setting, time, character, mood, relationship, goal, obstacle and the unknown."

Amateurs get lured in by a free trip to New York and a chance to see Ron Howard. (Oh Boy!)

READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS BEFORE YOU SUBMIT PHOTOS TO ANYTHING!!!

"Entry constitutes an irrevocable grant of permission to Sponsor and its parent companies, affiliates, subsidiaries, promotional partners, contractors, agents, Go Freestyle, LLC, and those each of them may designate from time to time, including without limitation all persons and entities involved in the production, distribution and/or marketing of the Film (as defined below) (all of the foregoing, the “Sponsor Parties) to use the entrant’s name, likeness (including without limitation photographs and/or recordings of the entrant), voice and biographical information, and the Photograph submitted by the entrant, including without limitation modifying, altering, excerpting or amending the Photograph and/or creating derivative works based on the Photograph or any component thereof, for purposes of trade, publicity or promotion and any other purpose, in all media and formats whether now known or later developed, throughout the world in perpetuity, without any notice, permission or compensation (except where prohibited by law)."

Summary:

• You will never be paid.
• They can modify your photos any way they please.
• They can use your photos FOREVER for ANY purpose whatsoever.
• They can license your photos (and all of the thousands and thousands of others) and generate income without ever paying you.
• They can contract with third-parties to license your photos and make money off of them.
• They can create derivative works of your photos (composites, black and whites, etc.).
• They can license those derivative works too.
• You get SCREWED.
• BUT WAIT! You can submit 5 photos per category! Hurry now and you can get SCREWED 40 TIMES!!! "IN PERPETUITY!"

Thank you Canon! Great job! Your behavior makes me proud I shoot with Nikon.

I've been reading New York photographer Dave Beckerman's blog for many years. In this great article he shares what he has learned after over a decade of selling prints online through his own website:

http://www.beckermanphoto.com/blog/general-notes-about-selling-photos-on-web/

The image below is a studio self-portrait I did as a stock photography concept image. It can be used to represent a variety of concepts like depression, disappointment, stress, failure, sadness, etc. It has been successful and licensed several times since I created it less than a couple of years ago. Most recently, it was published in The Guardian in this piece on mental illness.

Man holding his head in his hands.

We got back from Paris this morning after spending a night in Chicago due to a 4-hour departure delay in Paris, our second "maintenance issue" and overnight-layover in a row. At least it wasn't as bad as the total nightmare of the last return flight. If possible I never plan to fly out of Paris again. Let's face it, the French are much better at pastries than airplane mechanics and they certainly don't get in a hurry for anything. I've flown into Paris several times and have never had a problem with that, but I'll be passing through and flying back home from somewhere else the next time, whenever that may be.

We had a very good week though. My game plan of traveling around light and agile with small, non-zoom lenses (a 35mm and a 50mm) lasted about half a day. I just couldn't handle the fear of mentally setting up a shot but not being able to execute, so I hauled my mid-range zoom and heavy 70-200mm 2.8 around all day long. My prayers were answered and my hip and back problems totally disappeared for the whole week -- until we landed in Chicago last night. So I either need to pray for an extension or leave the country more often. 

We rented an apartment in Paris this time which worked out quite well. Our room was at the top of a 5-story building built in the 1600s. No elevator, just a spiral staircase. I've stayed in several very small European hotels in old buildings, plenty with no elevators, but this one was one of the steepest and tightest staircases I've ever seen. The closest thing I've ever seen was the stairs to the top of Notre Dame which start out wide and get narrower and narrower the taller you climb, except these were all wood instead of stone.

The apartment's location was great though. We were a block-and-a-half from the Louvre, so I walked over at sunrise one morning and photographed the Louvre and Tulleries gardens. Our window had a view of Sacre Coeur from which I setup my tripod one evening and photographed from dusk through dark.

I'll try to share more details and photos soon, but for now I'll leave you with just a snapshot I took while walking along the street in front of our apartment. This is actually a perfectly "normal" parking scene in Paris:

Some assembly required...