I have spoken about the business project we have been working on in a few posts here on Pixebian.com. Well all the hard work has finally amounted to the official  opening of the website for Shutter Tours.

The company was born out of a trip my wife and I took to New York in 2008. We wanted to get out and see the city, take photos and hit all the iconic locations in New York. Problem was, none of the vehicles stopped at any locations and if you wanted to take photos, well there was the opportunity to shoot through tinted windows at 30 mph. So we started researching the idea and spent countless hours developing the format, dealing with all the paperwork and permissions required to create a tour. We also did sample walk throughs to make sure it was interesting enough and that people learned from our walk.

With a light history lesson and lessons on composition ideas and skills, Shutter Tours will be starting May 1st in downtown Seattle. If you happen to come to Seattle for a vacation or a weekend, check out a Shutter Tours walking tour designed for photographers.

Disclaimer:This photo in no way represent Coldplay management, but it could be close.

First there is the three song limit with crappy lighting until the photographers are out of the pit, now bands and their management are getting more aggressive on demanding all rights from photographers.

“Coldplay has been accused of grabbing the rights to photographs taken during its concerts.

The chart-topping rock band has introduced a new contract for professional photographers that gives ownership of all the images to Coldplay’s management. Photographers who refuse to sign the contract will be denied access to the band and its gigs.”

So the question begs, why would a photographer sign a contract like this? Why not bring a 12 mega pixel point and shoot, pay for a ticket and get your own images without a contract? I understand the idea of having the photographer sign the contract and say its only for editorial use. I signed these type of contracts when I shot the Molson Indy Racing series. But no one ever said they owned my work.

If you work for a newspaper or magazine, chances are you won’t own the images anyway. Does a photographer have the rights to give away the rights of the newspaper when he shows up at the venue and the contract is thrust into his face?

This thread has an interesting comment about how this contract can negatively impact the fans and publications.

“I ran into a version of this contract with Coldplay in November of 2008. My paper had planned to give the show a big ride in both print and online.

We have to deal with contracts all the time, but this one was so tight and demanding it was horrifying.We attempted an amendment to the contract but it was rejected by Coldplay’s tour manager … so there went the planned photo gallery linked with the story.

After some discussions with my director of photography we opted for me to sign the contract and just get one photo we could use as a cut-out tease refer on the front of our local section.
However, because of the contract, there would be no photos online, including a gallery and we didn’t run any photos with the story in print outside of the teaser cut-out referring readers the the story.

I got some good photos that their fans here will never see because of this contract.

Also, we were allowed to shoot songs 2,3, and four, which is about standard. However, the position that was given to all of us covering this event was so far and off to one side of the action it was almost impossible to get a nice clean shot of the performance taking place. And, songs 2 and 3 were under such a dim red light I was actually trying to shoot a 300mm 2.8 hand held at 1/10 of second and they were still super under exposed( and not sharp) under a red light that would never reproduce on a cmyk press. All of my photos that we considered from this event came from the last 20 to 30 seconds of the last song we were allowed to shoot when the performers came anywhere near where we were told to stay.

Just my two cents.”

Gone are the days when you could get some real shots of real performances, not the pre proceesed “Cheese Whiz” type of stale images. 

Read more on BJP-Online.com

One of the earliest photographs in existence sold for $62,500 at Sotheby’s auction house in New York.

The photo, which was estimated to bring in anywhere from $50,000 to $70,000, was sold to an unidentified buyer.

The 5.5-by-4-inch, black and white daguerreotype shows a New York country estate.

The half-plate daguerreotype dating from 1848 shows what was then known as old Bloomingdale Road and referred to as “a continuation of Broadway.”

As usual, the photographer will never see a penny

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