Photo Assistant _ Photo Crew

Formerly known as PhotoAssistant.Net

Warning! Menu may have been blocked by IE-SP2's active content option. This browser feature blocks JavaScript from running locally on your computer.

This warning will not display once the menu is on-line. To enable the menu locally, click the yellow bar above, and select "Allow Blocked Content".

To permanently enable active content locally...

1: Select 'Tools' --> 'Internet Options' from the IE menu.
2: Click the 'Advanced' tab.
3: Check the 2nd option under 'Security' in the tree (Allow active content to run in files on my computer.)

Our Twitter

NEWS FROM THE SET CART

American Photography - American Illustration _ The new book.

11/14/2008

james

The American Photography & American Illustartion book is out now.

Check out the winning selections here.

https://www.ai-ap.com/

Adobe adds support for new Leaf RAW files

11/13/2008

leaf

Adobe released updates for Photoshop Lightroom and its Camera Raw plug-in. The updates bring the most current versions to 2.1 and 5.1, respectively.

The updates bring RAW support for the latest Leaf digital cameras and backs: Leaf AFi-II 6, Leaf AFi-II 7, Leaf Aptus-II 6, Leaf Aptus-II 7, as well as Leaf´s popular camera backs: Leaf Aptus 75S, Leaf Aptus 65S, Leaf Aptus 54S, Leaf Aptus 75, Leaf Aptus 65, Leaf Aptus 22, Leaf Aptus 17, Leaf Valeo 22, Leaf Valeo 17, Leaf Valeo 11, Leaf Valeo 6.

Among the changes in Lightroom 2.1 are improvements to Photoshop integration, performance improvements with Mac OS X and keyword migration from Lightroom.

Lightroom 2.1 and Camera Raw 5.1 are free updates that can be downloaded from Adobe’s Web site

Sen. Barack Obama has won election as the next president of the United States.

11/6/2008 8:31:33 AM

CNN

-- CNN projects that Sen. Barack Obama has won election as the next president of the United States.

Now the real work begins.

PLEASE GET OUT AND VOTE!!

11/4/2008 6:34:26 AM

James

This is probably the most important election of our time.

The polls opened here in NYC at 6:00 AM this morning.

I got to the polling place in the east village at 5:55 and I was about number 275 in a line;

which was at that time beginning to wrap around the corner of 1st avenue and 10th street.

What first strikes you at this hour is the social economic cross section of people that have chosen to get up at this hour knowing that they would be standing in line for an undetermined time to cast there vote; a process that literally takes all of 45 seconds if you go into the voting booth with your candidate selections already in your head.

Forgot password option fixed.

11/3/2008

james

Many of you have found that teh lost password option was not working. That has been fixed. Sorry for the deley.

Macy's Cuts All Magazine Spending for First Half of '09

11/3/2008

Advertising age

The retailer has quietly cut its entire magazine spend for the first half of 2009, according to several publishers. "We were on a media plan for Macy's, and we got a call," said one publisher. "They scuttled the entire first half." That comes amid a marketing binge that includes Macy's 150th-birthday celebration, complete with fireworks and a gala last week, and a robust holiday marketing plan.

http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=132196

Digital Rail Road - UPDATE

11/2/2008 5:36:47 AM

via email

Photographers with Digital Railroad Archives need to take immediate action.

SAA is following up on behalf of photographers.

Oct. 30, 2008. Digital Railroad operations are now shut down, and awareness is building among photographers and archive owners that the site could go offline at any time. Yesterday, the DRR system was so overloaded that outbound image transfer was disabled and then reinstated several times, adding to the frustration of photographers rushing to download image files, data and sales reports.

Today, Photoshelter issued a statement that they'd confirmed from Diablo Mangement, the company handling the liquidation process, their "intent to shut down the DRR site as early as 11:59PM, PST, on Friday October 31. After this point, it is very likely that all the images located on the Digital Railroad servers could be permanently inaccessible."

read the full story here: http://www.stockartistsalliance.org/drr

Men's Vogue Frequency Cut to Twice a Year

10/30/2008

Mediaweek Breaking News

more signs of jobs and work going away.

Condé Nast Oct. 30 confirmed it plans to scale back Men’s Vogue to twice a year frequency from 10 times. Mediaweek's Lucia Moses has the story.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/magazines-newspapers/e3iadb60bbfae240bb7525036c309c4067c

Digital Rail Road closes

10/28/2008 8:50:04 AM

jamesnyc

As we reported over the weekend, Digital Rail Road was probably not going to make it to the end of the year.

So it comes as no surprise that they shuttered operations today.

http://www.digitalrailroad.net/

In responce Photo Shelter has an offer for DRR customers.

http://pa.photoshelter.com/mkt/200810/drr.html

Read More: Digital Rail Road closes

Digital RailRoad & Photo Shelter as 1? NO WAY!!

10/25/2008 5:30:25 AM

jamesNYC

Ok, so you've heard the rumors...

Someone is spreading a rumor that Digital RailRoad and Photo Shelter are concidering merging.

I can confirm from very good authority that there is NO WAY that the rumored merging of these two companies will ever happen.

My sources tell me that the poor financials of Digital Rail Road make it severly impractical for any outside company to aquirer Digital Rail Road and it's accumulated debt on two fronts.

Which indicates that D.R.R. in it's current form my be gone by the end of the year; or absorbed by a larger corperation on the scale of Getty images that would be able to absorb the debt and still be profitable.

PhotoShelter, appears to have regrouped and rebuilt itself in the wake of it's shuttering of the Photo Sheleter collection (Which may not be as dead as it seems). And it appears that Photo Shelter has other plans and features in the works that will present themselves in the coming weeks and months.

Will this be the last PhotoPlus EXpo?

10/24/2008 5:43:03 PM

JamesNYC

This week brings us the PhotoPlus Expo being held at the Jacob Javits center Oct. 23-25 in NYC.

I will again be there all three days checking out all of the new toys and speaking with potential advertisers.

In the last 60 days I've spoken with most of the sales and marketing depts. for most of the photo industries top companies and surprisingly a large number of them will not be showing at this years PhotoPlus Expo event.

While the timing of this decision coincides with the lagging economy, the main reason for this decision seems to be that Showing at this event is no longer cost effective.

Companies such as Olympus and Hasselblad were noticeably absent last year.

What to do when the economy sucks.

10/23/2008 5:44:04 PM

jamesNYC

What do you do when the economy sucks? New York photographer James Weber is using this time working on a new series of images entitled Evolution. Check out the new images.

Capture 1 Pro V.4.5 isues

10/23/2008 5:45:45 PM

JamesNYC

After using Capture 1 Pro V.4.5 for the last week here are a few issues that I have encountered.

Regardless of what operating system you use (Mac or PC) do not attempt to run Capture 1 Pro V.4.5 on anything less than a dual or quad core computer with the latest 512MB graphics cards; unless you have a penchant towards masochistic tendencies.

V.4.5 is very CPU and graphics intensive.

If you have Capture 1 Pro V.3.7.9 on your system and then install Capture 1 Pro V.4.5 you will find that;

when trying to open Capture 1 Pro 3.7.9, Capture 1 Pro V.4.5 will first try to open and you can then choose to quit that program and then Capture 1 Pro 3.7.9 will open as normal.

"HOWEVER!" it does appear that Capture 1 Pro V.4.5 does not completely close.

Capture One V.4.5 PRO "Finaly!"

10/15/2008 6:04:56 PM

JamesNYC

As I suspected yesterday, we now at long last have the release of Capture One Pro V.4.5

Get it here: http://www.phaseone.com/Content/Downloads/CO4.aspx

Press release here: http://www.phaseone.com/upload/pressrelease_capture_one_4_pro.pdf

Release notes here: http://69.64.47.32/330a3505-0085-4247-a029-d396cc74c3c8/cc7c48aa-abc6-40bc-aa43-9e022d9c7aa0/Capture%20One%204.5%20release%20notes.pdf

Screen shots of both Mac & PC versions will be up in a few hours; and if possible we'll try it out on our new OSX86 system.

more later.

------------------------------------------------------------------

UPDATE: 7:29 pm

CAPTURE 1 PRO V.4.5

OSX68 10.5.4 _ Canon 40D & Canon 1DS MKII

Both work shooting tetherd _ Processing "Freaking blazing Fast!"

OSX 10.4.9 G4 laptop _ Canon 40D & Canon 1DS MKII

Both work shooting tetherd _ Processing "Fatser then normal"

Windows XP pro_ Canon 40D & Canon 1DS MKII

Both work shooting tetherd _ Processing "Freaking blazing Fast!"

More images tomorrow

Capture One Pro V.4.0 Is today the day?

10/14/2008 8:21:02 AM

James

Attempts to download from the Phase One web site have resulted in Error MSG's for the last 36 hours.

Could this be a signal to the launch of V.4.5 Pro after a 3+ year wait?

As soon as we get the files we will let you know.

Bush Signs Law Creating Copyright Czar

10/13/2008 8:39:36 PM

Wired Magazine

President Bush on Monday signed into law legislation creating a copyright czar, a cabinet-level position on par with the nation's drug czar.

Two weeks ago, the House sent the president the "Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act" (.pdf), a measure the Senate approved days before creating a cabinet-level copyright czar charged with implementing a nationwide plan to combat piracy and "report directly to the president and Congress regarding domestic international intellectual property enforcement programs."

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/10/bush-signs-law.html

This posses several questions.

"How will this effect the Orphan works bill?"

"Will this be limited to the Film and recording industry?"

"Will the person appointed be Pro artist or pro business?"

It would appear that this could leave teh dorr open for furthur debate on teh bill and more oppertunities for teh photo industry as a whole to pull it's collective head out of teh sand adn take serious action rather than waiting around for "Some one else" to handle the details.

I ran more later...

Networking event October 14, 6:00 pm

10/12/2008

james

hey everyone our next MeetUp networking event will be tomorrow at :

St. Dymphna's

118 St Marks Pl
>
New York, NY 10009

hope to see you there.

question? email me.

For Successful Email Campaigns, Test Your Subject Lines

9/30/2008

by Jon Hornstein

Enterprising photographers put a tremendous amount of effort into their email campaigns. Managing lists, choosing images, writing copy and creating landing pages are just some of the areas that need careful attentions. But one of the most critical aspects of email campaigns is also one of the most overlooked: subject lines. The subject line is an important factor in determining if your email will get through a spam filter and if the recipient will open the email if it does make it through. In other words, no matter how much time, attention and resources you devote to your email campaigns, much of that is wasted effort unless your subject line is both compelling and unlikely to be considered spam.

There are entire chapters written about how to craft a great subject line. A few quick tips include:

Cannon announces the EOS 5D Mark II

9/29/2008 6:38:42 AM

Canon

Cannon announces the EOS 5D Mark II, its long anticipated follow up to the incredibly popular Canon 5D.

This new EOS 5D MKII sits squarely in the price and feature range that will attract both professional and high-end pro-summers

Canon has shown dominance in the DSLR market since the early days of digital capture.

Probably the biggest attraction to the camera will be it price point. which brings it into the realm of most photographers looking

for a truly professional camera with a lower price range.

This new 21.1 megapixel full frame camera offers a resolution heretofore only seen in high end medium format cameras.

Live View HD is certainly a novel idea and a direct response to Nikon video feature.

While a number of people have questioned why this feature would be added I believe that we will see this same feature becoming standard on medium format cameras also. This will become a common request from art directors to add video footage of the shoot for web display.

"Please consider billing accordingly."

Below is the product info as canon presents it.

1ProPhoto.Com Lighting workshops are here!!

9/29/2008 6:49:59 AM

JamesNYC

At long last we are pleased to announce the 1st in our series of lighting workshops.

More information is available here: http://www.1prophoto.com/Lighting_01.asp

This first workshop is based on the most often seen/used lighting setup; the ubiquitous White background. While every photographer has the belief that his is the only way of creating a perfect white background, I can attest to the fact that I can show you 101 ways to shoot a white background based on what I've seen on jobs over the years.

What I will be showing is 8 different versions of a clean white background and how to achieve it quickly and with out going nuts on your production budget. yet creating a unique look with each variation.

Next we'll show you how to take the exact same production elements and change your backgrounds to shoot grey and black simply by changing a few lighting elements and different variations on those themes that can then be achieved again with only quick minor changes.

These lighting setups are the exact same used over the years and everyday on shoots that show up in Vanity Fair, Vogue, etc, and the same versions of lighting used for Lord & Taylor, Macys, Victoria's secret, etc. (If you really need to know the rest of the clients I've worked with email me.) And I know this because I've lit many of those shoots.

Please check oute our sign up page: http://www.1prophoto.com/Lighting_01.asp

Profoto announces the new Pro-8a Generators

9/26/2008 6:43:40 AM

1ProPhoto.Com

Profoto announces the new Pro-8a Generators

Profoto Pro-8A Air Tech data PDF file

Profoto Pro-8 Air Brochure PDF file.

New features of the Pro-8a

Up to 20 flashes per second at minimum power

Unbelievable 0.9 sec recycle time at full power

1/12,000 sec flash duration at minimum power - twice as fast as the D4, seven times faster than the Acute - very fast even at full power

AirSync allows wireless power control as well as wireless triggering

10 stop range adjustable in full stop and tenth stop increments

Lexar increases capacity to 16GB for Platinum II CF and SDHC cards as well as the Professional UDMA 300x CF cards.

9/18/2008 9:47:24 PM

1ProPhoto.Com staff

Lexar increases capacity to 16GB for Platinum II CF and SDHC cards as well as the Professional UDMA 300x CF cards.

Last week Lexar announced the release of their increased capacity value line of Platinum II Compact Flash and SDHC format memory cards

Lexar increased the capacity their Platinum II flash memory card line by introducing the Platinum II 60x 16GB Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) card

and Platinum II 80x 16GB Compact Flash® CF) card.

Lexar also announced the release of the Lexar Professional UDMA 300x 16GB CompactFlash Card

If you read our article back on 05/16/2008 about the UDMA 300X cards when they first came out http://www.1prophoto.com/CMSview.asp?ID=197

you'll see that we had great praise for this series of flash memory card. It is well worth repeating that the Lexar UDMA 300X cards are currently the FASTEST CF cards available to photographers; beating out even the overpriced SanDisk Ducati line of CF cards by nearly 15% in speed and more than 60% in price.

1ProPhoto workshop dates announced

9/17/2008 9:32:45 AM

JamesNYC

We've posted the new dates for our up coming Digital Tech Workshop & our PhotoAssistant Boot Camp.

Organization of the Artist.

9/3/2008 9:00:00 AM

Mark Rutherford www.lux-sf.com

The digital revolution has blown through our industry like a Cat 5 hurricane.
Safe to say the majority of survivors still find themselves awash in a flood of conflicting opinions and multiple workflow options. Our partners on the client side are of course in the same lifeboat as well. How many of us have been at the very least surprised if not shocked to see a published result that is far, far away from our original intent? Disappointing results are often due to a misapplied or mismanaged workflow.

Determining the ideal workflow for a given project is possible assuming all the parties involved have a clear understanding of each other’s capabilities.
All photography involves post-production after the instant of capture. There are no exceptions. At the very least, choices are made regarding color, contrast, sharpness and other parameters that affect the final result before the file is ever delivered. Ultimately the responsibility for final creative control will be delegated to A) the photographer, B) a service bureau/pre-press/post-prod facility or C) a combination of both.

To Succeed, Don't Compete With Stock

8/30/2008 4:00:00 PM

by Jon Hornstein

There's no denying that it's a challenging time for professional photographers. There are many reasons for this, but one of the most significant is the fact that the supply of stock photography has seen explosive growth while demand has only grown slightly. The result is extreme downward pressure on the price of stock images.

The availability of stock images at rock-bottom prices affects not only the market for stock photos but other areas where stock could conceivably be used. When a credible stock image can be had for a few dollars from a microstock agency, designers, art directors and photo editors will go out of their way to find a way to use stock (or will be directed to do so by the people who manage their budgets) rather than spend hundreds or thousands of dollars hiring a photographer.

With that said, there are many areas where using stock imagery is not an option. Generally speaking, the more a photographer can establish themselves in an area that doesn't compete with stock, the better their chances to have financial success.

http://www.photo-marketing-tips.com/?p=399

“8X10 with out a net.”

8/14/2008 3:50:45 PM

JamesNYC

“8X10 with out a net.”

I got a call last week from a photographer friend of mine for an 8X10 shoot.
This was to be a fine art shoot that would take place in a burned out building with out air-conditioning.
While we had plenty of film for the shoot (FUJICOLOR PRO 160S PROFESSIONAL), but we came to find that Polaroid 8x10 could not be found anywhere in or around NYC.

Read More: “8X10 with out a net.”

"I don't hire women" and other sexist comments.

8/13/2008 10:13:23 PM

JamesNYC

As I have stated in some of my other writings, based on my observations there is an unspoken fact about the commercial photo industry; that being the degree of sexism and racism that exits.
This despite it’s perception of being all inclusive and populated by progressive thinking artists’.

New server upgrades done.

8/5/2008 7:16:25 PM

James

New server upgrades are done. We swicthed over to a "green" hosting web company. And in doing so were able to get rid of 6 of our 8 servers, and lower the office temp by 10 degrees

Interview with Selina Maitreya now available in our video section

7/24/2008

JamesNYC

At long last our Interview with Selina Maitreya of www.1Portauthority.com and

the author of 'How to succeed in commercial photography, insights from a leading consultant'. is available in the video section.

50 & 65 Megapixel digital backs. “Do we really need them?”

7/24/2008 3:24:09 PM

James

With Hasselblad’s announcement last week of their new H3DII-50 “Integrated digital Camera” (The H3DII-50 camera will be available from October 2008 at a price of $39,995."). Phase One felt the need to respond with the early announcement of their new P65+ digital back (Expected release Q4 2008) which is expected to work with most third party medium format camera bodies.

The estimated retail price for either one of these will be around $40.000.00 which begs the question: “Do we really need a 50 or 65 megapixel digital back?”

This post updated, now include Hasselblad press release.

Getty announces deal with Flickr

7/15/2008 9:37:02 PM

GETTY

Images can be tremendously powerful. Images, empowered appropriately, can challenge, convince, delight and inspire. At Flickr, we think one of our most important missions is to enabe images to be all that they can be. And as such, we are incredibly proud and excited to launch a new partnership with Getty Images, the unrivaled leader in digital media licensing, to offer a new Flickr branded collection on www.gettyimages.com.

The creative and editorial teams at Getty Images have a deep understanding of what makes images truly extraordinary as well as what their clients (on a global scale) are seeking. Marrying this expertise to the talent and breadth of the photography on Flickr is truly an incredible opportunity, for our members, for Getty Images clients, and for those who love imagery in all of its forms.

So how does it all work?

http://blogs.gettyimages.com/creative/category/flickr/

How Getty Is Killing the Stock Photo Industry

7/9/2008 1:37:02 PM

PHOTOSHELTER blog

How Getty Is Killing the Stock Photo Industry

When we created the PhotoShelter Collection, we aimed to change the face of the stock photography industry by fundamentally altering the dynamics of how photographers were treated, and in turn, providing visual diversity to buyers that simply didn't exist. Tens of thousands of photographers from over 130 countries signed up and started uploading their images to PhotoShelter, and the buyers have followed. Each month we have stolen sales with major clients away from Getty and have become an increasingly large thorn in their side.

So it's a flattering to hear that Getty Images is validating our approach and recognizing our success by reaching into the flickr community. No other competitor in their history has forced Getty to change their model. This is a great sign of encouragement for us. Getty's CEO Jonathan Klein describes this new endeavor as "the best imagery from a fresh collection of high-quality images chosen by us from Flickr's diverse and prolific community." If it sounds familiar, it should be, something very similar is printed on our homepage.

But rather than compare lexicon, let's clarify some of the key points and differences of this announcement.

http://blog.photoshelter.com/corp/2008/07/how-getty-is-killing-the-stock.html

PHOTOSHELTER CEO COMMENTS ON PARTNERSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT BETWEEN GETTY IMAGES & YAHOO! FLICKR

7/9/2008 1:38:28 PM

PHOTOSHELTER

PHOTOSHELTER CEO COMMENTS ON PARTNERSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT BETWEEN GETTY IMAGES & YAHOO! FLICKR

Getty announcement validates PhotoShelter's approach to stock photography;

PhotoShelter counsels Flickr photographers to mind the details on exclusivity and compensation

New York, NY, July 9, 2008 - PhotoShelter Inc., the leading online destination where more than 37,000 photographers sell stock photography and access powerful solutions for e-commerce and image storage, today released a statement from CEO Allen Murabayashi, commenting on the recent partnership announcement between Getty Images and photo sharing website flickr. Murabayashi directly linked the strategic move by Getty and flickr to the positive, tangible impact that PhotoShelter's business model is having on the stock photo industry, and cautioned photographers to carefully scrutinize the details of Getty's contract terms before agreeing to exclusive sales rights and ceding as much as 80% of every sale to Getty.

http://psc.photoshelter.com/about/index/news/20080709

Getty announces deal with Flickr

7/9/2008 1:31:55 PM

APhotoeditor.com

Interesting development in the stock industry, Getty Images and Flickr are working together to establish the first commercial licensing opportunity for photo-enthusiasts in the Flickr community:

http://aphotoeditor.com/2008/07/08/getty-announces-deal-with-flickr/

Conde Nast Closes Golf for Women

7/8/2008 12:00:00 AM

AdAge

Editor Susan Reed Jumps to Winfrey's O Magazine

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Conde Nast has abruptly ceased publishing Golf for Women magazine. The title's ad pages fell 5.9% last year and newsstand sales fell 12%.

http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=128229

Aperture 2.1 launch issue when running Phocus 1.0

7/7/2008

If you encounter problems with Aperture 2.1 while running Phocus 1.0, the information provided in this mailing is relevant to you :

The issue:

When Phocus 1.0 is launched it will check whether the necessary ICC profiles are present and if not they will be installed. Unfortunately due to an OS bug related to 64 bit applications this leads to a partly corrupted ColorSync profile cache which will prevent Aperture 2.1 from launching.

The solution:

In most cases the issue can be fixed by following these steps:

Assistant Promo's

7/5/2008 12:00:00 AM

forums

Hey Guys,

I am in the process of stepping my assistant “game” up and am looking to mail out promos to photographers. I am curious to hear a few suggestions and answers on the following questions from anyone who receives and sends these out.

1.    Do you place all your skills and clients on the card, or just a brief synopsis?

2.    How do you feel about pictures and logos?

3.    Should I have my website resume link and other information on it?

4.    Plain envelope or other?

5.    I have heard some place a brief introduction about themselves or something comical to show personality.

I think that about covers most of the questions I had so far.

http://www.1prophoto.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=105&SID=cfec4bf619c8adabcbdz6bfe93759eb7