Bluejacket Photo

A photo taken from a point a little south of me that shows the shuttle Atlantis and the Hubble Telescope passing in front of the sun.

STS-125 Atlantis and Hubble Solar Transit

The picture was taken by Thierry Legault.  More of his photos are here.  His work is simply amazing.

The interesting thing to me, though, is that this picture was taken using off the shelf equipment (5 inch refracting telescope and a Canon 5D Mark II digital camera).

Photography has come a long way…

Photographer Scott Bourne, who has an excellent website, also twitters (and twitters useful stuff!), and he recently made this announcement:

Scott Bourne Contest Update

Between now and April 30 I’ll give away:

1) A second generation Firewire Drobo – value $500 (US and Canada only).
2) A ScanCafe.com gift certificate for $500 worth of scanning (US only).
3) $1000 worth of RayFlash ring flash adapters (five valued @ $200 each). (Worldwide)
4) Well who knows? I am a giveaway machine.

I’ll be giving away something roughly every two or three days so stay close. I’ll try to make it fun.

The base rules for my contests are:

a. You must be at least 18 years of age.
b. The contests are void where prohibited by law.
c. All taxes are the responsibility of the winner.

To be eligible to win, do any one or all of the following: (If you do all you increase your chances of winning)

1: Place a link on your website or blog to http://www.photofocus.com.
2: Place a link on your website or blog to http://www.mydl.me.
3. Follow me on Twitter.
4. Follow me at http://www.scottbourne.com.
5. Send this Tweet out ONE TIME if (AND ONLY IF) you think my contests are a good idea…

Follow @scottbourne for a chance to win a Drobo, ScanCafe gift certificate or a RayFlash. Details here: http://bit.ly/17i6R8

If you are already following me and/or have links to my sites, you’re already eligible to win.

The full details are here.

Remember my conversations with Ink Publishing?  It seems that they aren’t the only company trying to get something for nothing.  The website “The Photography Biz” wrote  an article a couple of years ago about the value of giving away a photograph in exchange for “a photo credit… Their opinion?  I think the title says it all:

Why photo credit lines aren’t worth the paper they’re written on

Since the advent of digital more and more people are making images. That’s a good thing. The downside is that the explosion of photo sharing sites like Flickr and PBase have created a ready made amateur market for business savvy publishers to exploit.

Don’t get me wrong, they’re not doing anything illegal. They are simply playing on the fact that there are lots of new image producers in the marketplace who don’t have the first clue that their images are worth anything, and they are banking on the fact that “being published” is reward enough on its own.

Read the rest of their piece here…  Highly recommended (as is the website), if only to get the link of Harlan Ellison ranting…

TwipPhoto.com has an excellent article with ten tips for negotiating a price for your photographs and photographic services…

1. Think and aim high. There are plenty of low-ball photographers out there. They will offer to do the job for less than you. Let them. Don’t be afraid to ask for a FAIR price. If it’s too high for your client – better to let it go to a low-baller. This keeps the perception that you are worth more alive, probably helps drive the low-ball competitor out of business, and leaves you in position to charge this client more next time.

(continue reading…)

There’s a very informative discussion of these topics over at Dan Heller Photography…

This page is worth bookmarking, and the whole web site has useful topics regarding the business of photography.

I definitely plan on spending a bit of time there, so I can avoid repeating the mistakes of others in favor of new, creative mistakes of my own.