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PhotoRESEARCHER |
PhotoRESEARCHER Newsletter for April, Week Two #451B |
KEY WORDS: |Editorial Photo |
Fledgling Photo Editor |
PhotoSourceBANK |
Home Office Expenses |
Tax Deduction |
Freelance Photo Researchers |
Salaried Person |
Carry-Forward Provision |
A Net Loss |
Profit-Making Activity |
Aspp Education Conference |
ASMP |
ASPP Website |
Spammers |
Amazon |
Welcome to PhotoRESEARCHER Newsletter, a weekly newsletter from
PhotoDaily, PhotoSource International. Want to read back issues of PhotoResearcher Newsletter? http://www.photoresearchn To sign up for our photoRESEARCHER Newsletter, visit us online at: (If you do not wish to receive the PhotoRESEARCHER Newsletter, please
see the instructions at the end of this newsletter.)
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ASPP EDUCATION CONFERENCE , April 24 – 27, 2008. The American Society of Picture Professionals invites all photography and visual media professionals to their 5 th Education Conference to be held at the Hilton Phoenix East/Mesa Hotel, Mesa, Arizona. The conference will feature 8 sessions with industry guest speakers and panelists who are key representatives from agencies including Digital Railroad, Getty, Jupiter Images, agefotostock, Image Source, fotolia and Corbis; organizations including PACA, ASMP , SAA, BAPLA, ACSIL, IPTC and PLUS; publishing representatives from Macmillan/McGraw-Hill and Discovery Communications; and notable speakers such as Mary Virginia (Swanee) Swanson and Nancy Wolff, among others. Conference Package Price includes continental breakfasts, buffet lunches and two poolside cocktail receptions, a Gala Dinner and all conference sessions: ASPP members - $450, PACA members - $540, Other Imagery Alliance* members - $590, Non-members - $650. Registration may be done through the ASPP website , or by downloading a registration form and mailing it in. A full conference brochure is also available at www.aspp.com/pages/194/183/0/ . |
Tax Tactics
Can I Deduct My Home Office Expenses ?
Advance Notes : There’s a tax deduction available to freelance photo researchers who use part of their home as an office.
The IRS allows you deductions for the portion of your house that you use to operate your stock photo research business. However, if you are a Salaried Person working at a “main job,” and your photo research business is a part-time venture, you cannot use your office-in-the-home expenses to create a net operating loss. If the total of your other photo-research-related business expenses (not including home-office expenses) is greater than your income, giving you a loss, that is allowable. If your office-in-the-home expenses, when added to the total of your other business expenses, take you over the top to give you a loss, that’s not allowable. Only that portion of your home-office expense that takes your total of expenses up to the amount of your gross business income, can be deducted, each year (there is a loss- carry-forward provision ). If the total of your home-office expenses added to the total of your other business expenses comes to less than your gross income, the full amount of your home-office expenses is deductible. (And of course all expenses are allowed if you are a full-time freelancer.)
SEPARATE EXPENSES
If you are in a salaried position and your photo research business is part-time, here’s how it works for you. Let’s say your photo research business, operated out of your home, has a gross income (receipts before expenses) of $12,000. Your business incurs home-office expenses of $1,500 (a percent of utilities, mortgage interest, roof repairs, and so on). Your normal business expenses, such as office supplies, postage, travel, software, computer expense, etc. total $11,500. Since your gross income was $12,000, you can use only $500 of your $1,500 office-in-the-home expenses as a deduction. However, you may carry forward the disallowed $1,000 to subsequent tax years; these carried-forward home-office expenses, though, are subject to the same restriction each subsequent year– i.e., they are not allowable if the addition of their total creates a net loss from the business activity.
Want to read more of this article? Go To http://www.photosource.com/researcher/Gen694c.html
Dennis Cox |
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Those One-Dollar Photos……. Are They Any Good?
If you check out the magazines on the rack at Wal-mart or the airport, or the books at Barnes & Noble, or your teen’s high school textbook, you’ll find they include very few “generic” pictures. (Generic, meaning general, non-specific images that can be used as layout fillers, general illustrations, or ad backgrounds.) It’s not that editorial photo editors don’t like microstock generic photos (if they had a job at an ad agency they’d love them), but rather that an editor’s job is to match the targeted content of the text in the magazine or book with specific photographs. Simple as that. A customer who buys a book or magazine expects on-target information in the special-interest periodical, book, or publication –and that includes not only the text, but also the photo illustrations. Putting a generic $1 photo in their layout opens up the possibility of a catastrophe for the photo researcher or editor. Like what? Well, the same microstock photo might appear elsewhere, in a public brochure, newspaper or magazine advertisement, or worst-case scenario, in a competitor’s publication. Persons who invest in a publication, book, magazine, textbook, coffee table book, etc. expect exclusivity. They don’t expect to see the same photo used elsewhere. Many a fledgling photo editor has been burned in the early days of microstock photography, when they jumped on this source of inexpensive photos and used a picture that a month later (or the same month!) was used elsewhere in the publishing world. There’s a saying in the photo research arena, “If the photo costs a dollar, it could also cost your job.” Publishers want to give their readers distinctive, relevant, well-researched text and photos. That’s how they stay in business. FALSE ALARM The perceived threat of competition from $1 pictures available on the Internet lessens even more when you look at what’s happening when it comes to the selling of editorial stock images. On the photographer’s side, editorial stock photographers have learned to personally keyword their photos with targeted words that guide the photo researcher to their site or a site like the PhotoSourceBANK, which has guaranteed high buyer traffic. Photobuyers have discovered they can use the Internet to find the best, exact, exclusive photo for their publishing project. Using a text description and a popular search engine such as Google, Yahoo, or MSN, they type a “long tail search” (using several words to describe what they need) into the search bar*. This connects the buyers to photographers’ websites or sites that make the work of many photographers available. This system, of course, is in its infancy, but is the way of the future. Just the word ‘camel,’ ‘weed,’ or ‘airplane’ is no longer viable in descriptive databases. Expect to see longer and more specific search keywords, helping photographers make their images more accessible, and helping photobuyers zero in on just the photos they need. Rohn Engh , veteran stock photographer and best-selling author of “Sell & ReSell Your Photos” and “sellphotos.com,” has helped scores of photographers launch their careers. For access to great information on making money from pictures you like to take, and to receive this free report: “8 Steps to Becoming a Published Photographer,” to answer, “How do I sell my photos?” *We encourage photobuyers to also add the word photosource at the end of their search keywords. That lands them directly on the PhotoSourceBANK, where member photographers list identifying descriptions of more than 2 million specific photos. Buyers can find the photo they need in seconds, using the keyword search system. The PhotoSourceBANK is used by hundreds of photobuyers every day, to search for the source of the photos they need. For information about the PhotoSourceBANK, join us at search.photosource.com. A Study’s About To Begin Well, it’s already been done. And to think we never knew. According to a recent report by a US web security firm, almost 95% of email sent in 2007 was SPAM. Remember the 2004 CAN-SPAM Act? Think it’s doing any good? Me neither. Of course, it’s getting harder to stop as the spammers route emails through other folks’ websites, blogs, zombie computers, and of course the off-shore (to U.S.) servers. Recycling More places to recycle your used electronic stuff. For cell phones, in addition to your own wireless carrier, electronics stores, and libraries, visit www.recyclewirelessphones.com. Many computer manufacturers will take back their own computers and sometimes competitors’ when you get a new computer. Details vary quite a bit, of course. Check out their respective websites, and also www.cristina.org, a site that connects donors of working computers to the needy. Batteries can be recycled at many places, and we’ve mentioned some in the past. Here’s a website with information on battery recycling: http://www.call2recycle.org. Printer supplies, especially toner cartridges, can be recycled at many office supply stores, sometimes for discounts or maybe a ream of recycled paper. Same with ink cartridges. There are refill stations in many office-supply stores where you can get your old cartridge refilled with ink. But a note of caution: Most refilled cartridges don’t work as well as new ones. Besides the “who makes the ink” issue, these cartridges generally double as the print head. The print head part is designed to last as long as the ink, so with refilled cartridges, you’re using the print head part beyond its intended life. Caveat emptor. Amazon’s Amazing Maybe you didn’t know, but the giant online retailer amazon.com (www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/photosourcefolio) offers the equivalent of a 30-day price guarantee (some exclusions apply). If the item(s) you buy goes down in price within 30 days of your being charged for it, you can apply for a refund of the difference. And if it goes down again within that same 30-day window, you can ask again! Want to read more of this article? Go To http://www.photosource.com/researcher/Onlin191.html
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Robert Cranston
Watch
for developments in the field of stock photography in
PhotoResearcher's Newsletter Note: If the URL is long, it may extend to two lines. In that case - clicking on it won't work. Instead, "copy and paste" the URL. LOST PHOTOS. Court Orders Corbis to Pay $834K in Two Lost Image Cases - The US District Court for the Southern District of New York has hit stock photo agency Corbis with two separate orders to compensate photographers for lost images in recent weeks. http://www.pdnonline.com/ GETTY GAVEL GETS GREEDY. Could Still Accept Better Merger Offer - Documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday show that the Getty board continues to hold out hope for a better deal than the $34 a share offered by private equity firm Hellman & Friedman. http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/newswire/ FOSSIL FOTO. Image could point to earlier dawn of photography - A New York auction house is selling a primitive photograph that could be a much earlier work than originally believed. If so, it says, it would be one of the most important discoveries in the history of photography. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2008-03-27-image-early-photography_N.htm?csp=34 WHAT WOULD CARTIER-BRESSON THINK? Street photographers fear for their art amid climate of suspicion - As far as the public's concerned, if you're a man with a camera you're probably a paedophile. And now, if we look 'odd', we're also more than likely terrorists." Stuart dislikes the double standard that fights for the freedom to shoot document life in Iraq and Afghanistan but gets squeamish about invading privacy at home. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/ THE POWER OF PHOTOS. Whoever controls images will have great social influence. Has the camera damaged religion’s attractiveness? http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/mar/27/religion. THE DARKROOM EXHUMED. Black-and-white photography won't be shuttered –part of the counter wave. They have invested in equipment and space in recent years to keep the program competitive with its digital counterpart. “Working in the darkroom is almost spiritual,” White said. “You have to have a different mindset.” “Every frame counts” has become a mantra for film photographers. http://www.columbian.com/lifeHome/lifeHomeNews/ FAMILY PHOTOS EVERYWHERE. Across the globe, as many as 112 million people have a traceable public blog, according to Technorati. Bloggers cite a growing number of "mom blogs," where families post pictures of their children and tell stories about things such as their latest road trip. But is it safe? http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/ HOT PHOTO FESTIVAL. Photography fans flock to Palm Springs Photo Festival. Hidden in a chic corner of Palm Springs, visitors would never guess they were approaching a photographer's oasis. http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/ ANOTHER FESTIVAL. Artists to converge on Cave Creek for film and arts festival, which highlights works in visual arts, photography, song, poetry and Choreography. http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/ PIONEERING AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHER, DIES. Mary Meader, 91, who as a spunky new bride in the 1930s took off on a 35,000-mile journey to advance geographic knowledge by making unprecedented aerial photographs of South America and Africa, died Sunday in Kalamazoo, Mich. She was 91. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/22/us/22
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On your Web browser go to: http://www.photosource.com/researcher/list.html
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PhotoRESEARCHER Newsletter monthly newsletter is produced
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PhotoRESEARCHER Newsletter monthly newsletter is produced
by PhotoDaily, PhotoSource International, Rohn Engh, Director,
who is solely responsible for its contents. PhotoSource International |
Can’t find that ZIP Code?Easy Desktop Postal Service If you shop on the internet for your U.S. stamps, mailers, etc., here’s a site that may be helpful. You can download My Desktop Post Office at www.usps.com/smartbusiness . It’s an online shortcut that lets you pick and choose the U.S. Postal Services you use most at usps.com, and access them instantly. Create Direct Mail, find a ZIP Code, buy stamps, and more.
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Jon Hill “You have been very useful and your newsletter has been an awesome resource!”
See exactly how a photobuyer finds pictures by using the PhotoSourceBANK. Check out our brief video that shows researchers and photobuyers the simple and quick system that leads directly to photographers who have the pictures they need. Finding a specific content photo using the Internet . (this link is www.photosource.com/theater)
Want to read back issues of PhotoRESEARCHER Newsletter ? Go to http://www.photosource.com
Do you use Google as your Home Page? Here’s a tip. Our site >http://www.photosource.com< has the Google Search address bar located conveniently on its front page. IDEA: Make the PhotoSource International Home Page your Home Page. You’ll accomplish two things: 1.) You’ll have the Google Search ready and available; 2.) You’ll have the current day’s stock photography news and helpful stock photo information ready and available for you. To be all set to search or to catch the latest happenings in the world of stock photography when you turn on your computer, go to http://www.photosource.com/
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Do you like to write? You can write copy for your own essays as well as those for others who want to team up with you. You can ghostwrite for clients who want to publish but don’t have the writing skills to do it. The Essential Guide To Ghostwriting. How to make money as a ghostwriter - step by step plan for anyone wanting to use their writing skills to earn money from home.
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 Duece Rogney |
 Brian Bartley |
 Steve Raska |
 Cory Western |