February 18th, 2012
Mike Hartley first started designing photography websites in 2000. Over the past twelve years, he’s been carefully keeping an eye on the photo website industry—competitions won, mistakes made, feedback from photo editors, art buyers, photographers—and after much consideration, he officially launched bigflannel Portfolio in the Fall of last year.
bigflannel is a template portfolio that already has over 50 users. Before taking on a template though, Mike created award winning custom websites for photographers such as Mark Katzman, whose site won a place in the Website Category of the PDN Photo Annual.
bigflannel's custom website for Mark Katzman
Mike says he decided to build a template after becoming frustrated with the available options for photographers,
I was fed up of the jargon and tech mumbo-jumbo fed to photographers by many of the website portfolio companies. I knew I could build a great looking and cost-effective product. To my mind, most of the products available have three problems: 1) they are too expensive, 2) they are proprietary and closed systems, and 3) they proclaim far too much. bigflannel Portfolio is 1) cost-effective, 2) uses a 3rd party admin or content management system and 3) claims only to display work professionally, not change one’s life. I also aim too, and hopefully do, deliver great support and always will.
bigflannel is continuously updating and trying to perfect their template. Currently, Mike’s working on a full HTML5 version for desktops and mobile that he’s planning to release this summer. He hopes the site will let users, “concentrate on their work, not their portfolio.”
Photographers and creatives interested in a bigflannel site can get 20% off their first year’s subscription by using the code WONDERFULMACHINE20.
Learn more about bigflannel on their site, bigflannel.com.
- Maria Luci
February 6th, 2012
Want to dig in and learn the delicious art of food photography and styling? Well, you’re in luck! Our super talented food photographer, Meeta K Wolff has not one, but two workshops coming up!
Meeta K Wolff
But first, a little about Meeta! Originally from India, Meeta has been living and shooting in Germany for the past 17 years. She’s not only an accomplished food photographer and stylist, but a popular writer as well. Her food blog, What’s For Lunch, Honey? has been nominated for several awards and is listed on the Times Online’s Top 50 Food Blogs. Meeta’s also had her writings published in Foodies of the World As a writer her work has been published in the book Foodies of the World.
Meeta K Wolff
Now back to the workshops. Your first opportunity to learn from Meeta in at the beautiful Atlantis, The Palm in Dubai at her Food Photography and Styling Workshop. This April 3-4, 2012 workshop is limited to only 10 participants and is ideally suited for food bloggers looking to take their photos to the next level.
The course will cover basic and advanced styling, presentation and photography through hands-on exercises including a market visit and restaurant meal. View the full program outline and register here.
Meeta K Wolff
Next, Meeta is jet setting to Somerset, UK and meeting up with fellow Wonderful Machiner Ilva Berreta for the From Plate to Page Food Photography and Writing Workshop. From Plate to Page is an exclusive, 2.5 day program that covers food styling, photography and writing skills. The workshop aims to help participants find their style and voice.
Meeta and Ilva will be teaching alongside several other talented photographers/writers including Huffington Post food contributor, Jamie Schler, and award winning food blogger, Jeanne Horak-Druiff. The program is aimed at food photographers, writers and bloggers.
Ilva Beretta
Interested? There are still a few slots left. You can register here. The dates of From Plate to Page are May 18-21, 2012.
You can view more of Meeta’s work on her website, meetakwolff.com.
- Maria Luci
December 10th, 2011
Recently, I was contacted about the new non-profit, PLUS Registry. PLUS Coalition is positioning the PLUS Registry to be a vital to image creators and image users. EPUK (The Editorial Photographers UK) goes as far as to suggest that the survival of the photo industry may depend on people using the Registry. EPUK also recently stated that they believe PLUS Registry to be, “the largest evolutionary step for the imaging industry since the internet arrived…PLUS is the only attempt and opportunity to systemically reinvent an environment that no longer works for anyone.”
So what is PLUS Registry? Well, that answer is somewhat complicated. At it’s core, PLUS Registry is a database that allows users to search and find the rights and descriptive information (metadata) for any image, and to find the current contact info for the creators, right holders and institutions attached to that image. PLUS Registry searches also include “all connected registries, greatly simplifying the process of locating the rights holder and rights information for any image, and presenting a viable solution to the challenge of orphan works.”
PLUS aims to have all images easily connected to their owners/rights holders, helping to impede copyright infringement. However, in order to effectively enforce your copyright—whether it’s registered with PLUS or not—images must be registered with the US Copyright Office before someone infringes on it. PLUS goal is to make finding and managing image rights simple. With the internet and print world full of images without credits, metadata, erased metadata, screen shots, etc, PLUS hopes to become the way to find the owners of any image.
In short, PLUS Registry is quite the undertaking. They will need almost all photographers and image makers to register all of their images, and get a PLUS Member ID. This ID, along with an individual Asset ID, will be included in the metadata of each images and can also be encoded using a new invisible watermark. Images registered can then be found through a number of the registry’s search techniques including by name of photographer, by Asset ID, by PLUS ID, and most importantly, through upload image search.
This means that if an art buyer finds an image s/he likes that’s missing a credit, they will be able to scan or even take an iPhone photo of the image and upload it to the PLUS Registry search. If the image is registered, it will then show the image owner’s name and contact info.
Photographers on PLUS can retrieve and update their metadata at anytime. If you change your address, or get a new phone number, the metadata and your registry info can be easy updated. According to EPUK,
This has profound implications. Registered images become “orphan proof” and deflate the pressure for changes to copyright law. Excuses for infringement, such as being unable to trace the rights owner, become indefensible.
The issue is, the effectiveness of PLUS all hinges on getting photographers to register and subsequently getting photo editors, art buyers, bloggers, and just about everyone else using it. An ambitious undertaking, to say the least.
Currently, PLUS Registry is in the beta phase. Users can register for a free basic membership which includes a listing in the registry. However, to obtain a PLUS Member ID, users need to become “supporting members” which requires a small annual contribution. PLUS maintains that this is necessary to cover the costs of the registry—storage, manpower, etc.
If PLUS gets its way, it would certainly have a positive impact on the photo community. Whether it will take off or not though, is yet to be determined.
You can, however, decide for yourself if PLUS works for you. Wonderful Machine has arranged for our readers to receive special advance access to the PLUS Registry, including a free PLUS membership and a free PLUS Registry listing. If you have any questions, you can find more details in the About and Help sections of the Registry’s website. You can also contact PLUS directly at support@PLUSregistry.org.
To claim your free PLUS membership and free PLUS Registry listing, click the red “Join” button at www.PLUSregistry.org.
- Maria Luci
