magickmichael

<p>I became the keeper of the family photographs about 5 years ago. Last year my father took a turn for the worse and I began the project of scanning all the images, color correcting them and restoring as many as I could (some of the restorations are on my website if you care). I have made the completed ones available to my family in private galleries on my site for anyone that wants them.</p>

<p>My original goal was to get all of them scanned and put them in a digital frame that would easily sit in my father's room. I was too slow. My father passed in January of this year. This has made it a much higher priortiy believe it or not. Now I want to get a few digital frames for my 4 siblings. </p>

<p>The part I am having trouble with is identifying most of the people in them. Some of the images taken at the turn of the century (1900) don't look like anyone I ever knew. Then again, I didn't know what my grandparents looked like when they were young either. By studying them in reverse order I am begining to piece together who is who and who is related to who. Had I been more diligent and started this project when my father was still alive thise would have been much easier.</p>

<p>Try digitizing them and save them for your kids. Sit with you mom and get the people identified. You will be glad you did.</p>

<p>I use ZF but primarily for client uploads like Marius. I also offer other prints for sale but I have yet to sell anything. I have had woderful reviews of the site and my clients love it. So far I am please but I have only been on it for 2 months. I agree with Lindsey as well. I know the quality of MPix and I have been using them for over a year now (prior to ZF).</p>

<p>Everything works well on the site, I get hits but not alot just searching for prints to buy. Allot depends one what you want Zen to do for you. If you are looking to sell prints, its not going to drive traffic to you as it is set up now but they are working on fixing that.</p>

<p>Overall, I love Zen.</p>

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<p>L Walker,</p>

<p>First be careful! If you are an in-house photographer and you get a regular paycheck from your regular photography work (Not a commission) you may be violating your contract with your employer. If you do get a paycheck, clear it with the HR department and get it OK'd in writing! It could easily be seen as a conflict of interest. That can get you fired!</p>

<p>Now to the pricing, Price out an hourly rate as if you were actually doing the shoot yourself, subtract a small discount (10-20%), that is your charge. The discount is because you have no wear or tear on equipment. you only need to charge for your time.</p>

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<p>In most states there is a limit to how much you can make and not claim it. In PA its $1500 a year. Get the EIN, charge tax (easiy with Zen's upgrades this past week) and pay the sales tax. if you make less than the claim amount for the year, don't claim it. If you make more you can also claim the $100 you spend for the Zen site and you can claim other deductions. Keep in mind though that Photography is the #2 audited business by the IRS. Do it right from the start.</p>

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<p>In my area $50 won't even get you an appointment at the mall. My cost is higher just to show up. In addition to what Dean says above, include the wear and tear on your equipment. You are only going to get a limited number of shots out of your cameras and lighting before it needs to be replaced or upgraded. What is that going to cost you?</p>

<p>Now how many shoots will you do an hour? 3 or more? If you can create and maintain that pace, then $50 may be reasonable, maybe. And if you can maintain that pace, Tell me where you live I will move there and be your competition.</p>

<p>Find out what your local market will bare. Call other shooters in your area and learn their rates. Find out what their overhead is. Do they shoot location only? Do they have a studio? Is it seperate from there home? Are they full time photographers? Once you know that you will have an idea on where to start your pricing. </p>

<p>People are not clammering to do portraits right now so you want to make sure your pricing will support your business and $50 sounds to me like you are trying to just make a few bucks on the side. In my experience that line of thinking only causes strife. You spend time shooting, you don't get paid what your time is worth and you bring the photography market down with you. Its a lose/lose situation.<br>

<br /> Sure you want to undercut your competition but you can do that in a much better way by undercutting them buy as little as $25 an hour. If the local market is getting $175-$200 an hour, ask yourself why. If you can do the same job for $150, do it. you will get the work, your fellow shooters will have to take notice and adjust their pricing or justify the higher cost and the market will grow. Win/win.</p>

<p>Michael<br /> <b>URL Signature Removed. Not allowed per photo.net Terms of Use.</b>

<p>As a person living in the Google SEO thing I can say don't do it. It is better to start a blog, become the expert in a niche and let the world discover you. Sure advertise the blog, send invites to everyone you can think of and keep posting quality stuff. That is going to bring you up in the ratings. Reciprocal linking has been all be removed from the ranking algorithms.</p>

<p>By trying to do the link thing you will shoot yourself in the foot. What Google and Bing want is quality of links. If your site or part of it, is the resource on topic ABC, then you rank high no matter how many reciprocal links you have.</p>

<p>Oh and do this to all posts on all lists:</p><b>DO NOT DO THIS ON PHOTO.NET. IT IS NOT ALLOWED.<p><b>URL Signature Removed. Not allowed per photo.net Terms of Use.</b>

<p>Let me take your questions one at a time.<br>

1. the option or reccomendation for caterers, or some type of suppliers of refreshments. I will need to keep the crew fed and refreshed if there for more than a couple of hours. The rest it seems you have covered.<br>

2. You're on the 4th floor with no lift? Next studion option please! Unless you have something very unique that I want/need to shoot in, I'm not using you.<br>

3. No because it takes time to schlep all that stuff up 4 flights and I have to pay my crew by the hour.<br>

4. Keep in mind of you are living in the studio you have other insurance issues as well as zoning problems. Make sure that you a legally able to live in or adjacent to the studio.<br>

5. Adopt me? I wish my family would front me a studio! Hell they think me being a pro shooter is a waste of time and talent. If they would bankroll me, I would find a unique space in the local city, one that no one else can match (if possible) and make sure it has a lift that can support anything shy of a Mack truck.</p>

<p>Trust me, prices are up and sales are down. The company I used to work for was thought ot be resession proof because of its diversity. They let me go in February and then 10% of the corporate staff the week before last. The real bi**h? The "board members" making 6-7 figures, all still there and that 10% doesn't add up to one of their salaries.<br>

I am having a hell of a time trying to get my photography business flowing. I get the occasional call but not enough to save my savings. I am 2 months from having to put my house on the market. I have a good 20-30k equity in it but where do I live when thats gone too?<br>

Something has to break sonner or later. I just hope its not me.</p>

<p>Check with MPix.com. I am not sure if they are double sided or not because I have no use for them. They do offer a few different formats though.<br>

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<p>I am not saying that the usage license must be in writing. I am saying that it is the best way to CYA (cover your a$$). If this person is willing to insist that she get all the images, she is more likely to be someone to come back and sue you, especially if she does "make it" and has the disposable income to pursue the issue.<br>

Let's take a quick glance at the nudes of Madonna that were done in the early 80s. The images that made Playboy and later the internet were out there because she signed a release. This gave the photographer the legal right to do whatever they wanted to do with them and Madonna couldn't legally fight it. Knowing Madonna, I doubt very much that those are the only images taken of her at that time. Chances are that no releases were signed and hence making for a more precarious situation to sell or publish them.<br>

Its not required to get a release, but it sure is easier in the long run. Espesially if she goes to the top.</p>

<p>Alan,<br>

Take into consideration all that has been said. Very good comments. I have to ask though, are you going to use this as a online portfolio or are you hoping to gain traffic via Google, Yahoo etc. If so you have about another 2 weeks work to do.<br>

In order to do well in the search engines you need to either not use Flash or duplicate every page you have in your gallery as a secondary HTML page. Search engines can't see Flash. It shows up as a blank page. At the very least use the wordpress page tool and make a sitemap. That will help some.<br>

Also register for Google Analytics. That also helps and it give you the chance to see how many hits you actually get and where they came from.<br>

<br /> SEO is a photographers nightmare because 90% just don't care enough to make the time to actually do it. Check out photoshelter.com's SEO guide. It teaches you alot. I don't use them for a couple of reasons but they do have good free SEO info.<br>

If you have any questions you can hit me up offlist.

<p>Basically in the US if you pressed the shutter button, you own the copyright. Here's the catch, if she didn't sign a model release, you can't use them. perhaps an amicable solution is "shared" rights. You can both use them for promotional purposes only. If she agrees to that, have her sign a contract. Just Google Photography Contract or Model Release and you will find samples.<br>

Limit the usage to a time period. If she signs it she is acknoledging that you own the copyright and after that time period, you can sell them to whoever you want. Check with a lawyer first, but that is how I understand the copyright law.<br>

Does she have a right to demand the images? Yep. But you have the right to say "No" as well.</p>

the best prices I have found on backdrops has been on www.photographyprops.com. The quality is excellent and so are the prices. I have been impressed with delivery times too. They come in all sizes too. Even if you are shooting a small area, I tend to prefer a backdrop at least 2x the size of my max shooting area. This way I get a good shadowless shooting area. Just my two cents.

Amazon.com has it too.

http://www.amazon.com/Duane-Michals-Foto-Follies-Photography/dp/3865212751/sr=8-1/qid=1170638903/ref=sr_1_1/103-8709247-1801467?ie=UTF8&s=books