Archive for the ‘Stuff we read.’ Category

Are You Growing or Rotting?

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

From Andy at photographers.co.uk

In the main I get approached by people looking for ideas as to how they can start a photography business and by people whose business is struggling and could do with a lift. The people I rarely hear from are the people sat in the middle with a business that is rolling along nicely.
An article that caught my eye recently covered businesses that appear to be doing just that, but have actually hit a plateau without the owner realising it. One phrase that struck a chord was that when something is green it grows. When something is ripe it rots! In many ways it doesn’t seem fair. You put so much effort into getting started and growing your business yet as soon as it is established and you ease up to give yourself a pat on the back it starts to rot.
My own online businesses have been running for a round 10 years and this is something I can identify with. There was a time when one site I run was performing extremely well. I thought I just needed to carry on doing what I was doing and everything would be fine. I learnt the hard way that no matter how well everything appears to be going you need to keep coming up with new ideas to make your business continue to grow.
How often do you change your products or inject new ideas into your marketing?

Your Website Design is Now Even More Important

Google have been making changes to their search pages. If you change your search settings you can now see a small image of a website before you click through to it.

This means that the better your website looks the more people are likely to click through to it from the search pages. So how your website looks is even more important now.
On the subject of Google and your website I have been told that Google will soon be placing more emphasis on how long your website takes to load. This could be of great significance to photographers. Many of the websites I visit often take a while to load up the first page.
If you are considering having your website redesigned in the near future it may be worth your while to consider this when talking to web designers.
Fast load times are not only great for visitors, but soon they may also give you a leg up in the search engines.

How Far can you Go on your Own?

The majority of photographers I speak to who make a very good living from photography have a team of people behind them. Not every one wants the hassle of employing staff, but if you want to grow your business it makes sense to plan early on areas that you can delegate to either your own staff or outsource to other companies.

There are reasons why delegating early can help.  The longer you leave it the more you get used to the way things currently work. The longer you leave it the more knowledge you need to pass over when the time comes. It also makes it harder to let go.
With so many people setting up their own small companies outsourcing is certainly an option you may find worth considering over employing your own team.

Talking to people in various industries it seems that one successful method is to identify long term tasks that someone else can do. This could be accountancy, sales, SEO or retouching. It appears that people find outsourcing runs more smoothly where you can go back to the same person with little, but often tasks where you can build a working relationship over a period of time.

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Just when you Thought it was Safe to go Snapping…

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

City of London Police Prove they Still haven’t got the Memo

Yesterday, I read a piece by Jane Fae Ozimek, which I have summed up here. Jane wrote that on Monday, a professional photographer was looking for a location on London Wall appropriate to a portrait of one of the architects responsible for the City’s changing skyline.

He went to One Aldermanbury Square, where the security guard asserted that the photographer could not take photos of the building. The photographer pointed out that the security guard was wrong. The police were called.

Apparently, four officers arrived, followed by a police van with flashing lights. He was detained, he claims, under Section 44(2) of the Terrorism Act 2000.

This controversial law permits police to stop any individual for the purpose of preventing terrorism. While police officers acting under this section do not require reasonable grounds for a search, they may do so where there are grounds for suspecting the photography is linked to terrorist activity. That said, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has in recent months made it clear that photographers are not fair game for random stop and search.

In a strongly worded statement, Chief Constable Andy Trotter, chairman of ACPO’s media advisory group stated:

“Everyone … has a right to take photographs and film in public places. Taking photographs … is not normally cause for suspicion and there are no powers prohibiting the taking of photographs, film or digital images in a public place.”

This message appears not to have been passed on to City of London Police. Despite the photographer explaining that he was taking photos as part of his job, the police were not satisfied. Allegedly, he was then restrained forcibly by another officer, while the first officer went through his pockets, removing his camera and mobile phone. The photographer described how the officers were cheered by his discomfiture, both mental and physical.

He claims: “the police officer went through my pannier, flipping through personal notebooks, gingerly peeking in a plastic bag that contained a towel and swimmers, still wet from my earlier swim. He located my wallet, and pulled out my drivers licence with obvious glee.”

At the end of the search, the police departed, having failed to return his mobile phone to him. The Terrorism Act does entitle a PC to seize any item which “he reasonably suspects is intended to be used in connection with terrorism”. If the PC genuinely believed the photographer to be carrying the tools of terror on him, it was clearly perverse to leave him free to carry out the rest of his mission, photographing buildings around the City of London.

The writer of this piece, Jane Fae Ozimek, asked the City of London Police to comment on this incident – specifically asking them for their views on the removal of the phone. An official spokeswoman told us:

“A man was spoken to by officers yesterday after police were called by security personnel. He was later searched under terrorism powers.”

What about the phone? No comment.

What about suggestions that the City of London continues to abuse powers long after other forces have stopped? She added:

“We continue to work to make sure the city remains a safe place to work and visit.”

Unless, added Jane, your work includes taking photographs, in which case the safety of neither yourself nor your property can be guaranteed.

You can read the original piece here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/11/police_photographers_terrorism_act/

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Photographers converge on New Scotland Yard.

Monday, February 16th, 2009

Title: Photographers converge on new Scotland Yard
Feature: Daily News
Date: 16 February 2009

More than 300 photographers gathered in front of New Scotland Yard on Monday 16 February to protest a new Counter-Terrorism Act that potentially makes it a crime to take photo of police officers and armed forces. BJP’s Olivier Laurent and Marina Scukina were there to report.

Answering the National Union of Journalist’s call, in association with BJP, hundreds of photographers, both amateurs and professionals, converged on New Scotland Yard on Monday in defiance of Section 76 of the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008, which targets anyone who take pictures of police officers and armed forces likely to be used by terrorists.

The media event, which lasted more than one hour, saw the NUJ team up with writer Mark Thomas, along with Chris Atkins, who is behind the documentary Taking Liberties, and freelance photographer Marc Vallée to protest the new rule. While the Home Office has maintained that the new law will not threaten photographers, it is feared that police officers could abuse Section 76 to prevent photographers from taking pictures in public places, just as Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 is currently being abused in certain cases, according to representative organisations.

The Counter-Terrorism Act 2008, which became law on Monday, amends the Terrorism Act 2000 regarding offences relating to information about members of armed forces, a member of the intelligence services, or a police officer.

The new set of rules, under section 76 of the 2008 Act and section 58A of the 2000 Act, will target anyone who ‘elicits or attempts to elicit information about (members of armed forces)… which is of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism’. A person found guilty of this offence could be liable to imprisonment for up to 10 years, and to a fine. 

Ed Stearns, the chief press officer for the Metropolitan Police, met with the photographers in front of the New Scotland Yard building and reiterated that ‘the Metropolitan Police has continued to train our officers on public photography and we will continue to do so.’ He added that photographers could use proper channels to report any abuses and that the police will continue to meet with organisations such as the NUJ to discuss the issue.

However, Vallée explained that the majority of photographers present at the event had previously been the victims of unnecessary checks by police officers and that the situation was getting out of hand. He questioned whether police officers were, in fact, trained on photography rights.

The event, which lasted more than one hour, also attracted media attention with representatives of the BBC, CNN, The Guardian, Associated Press and Getty Images present to cover it. BJP and other photography magazines, such as Amateur Photographer, were also represented after they called for readers to attend.

‘We had a fantastic turnout,’ said Thomas, who was himself the target of stop-and-search abuse in September 2007 [see 1854.eu for more details]. He added that he was impressed to see so many people challenge the new law from day one, as ‘all of us are in peril’.

For more pictures of the event, visit BJP’s blog at 1854.eu.

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