Modeling / Photography & Age Discrimination

About three weeks ago I worked with a model I’d never worked with before. She is gorgeous in every way. Polite, intelligent, beautiful skin, gorgeous full and shiny hair and an amazing fit body. As long as a person is of legal age I don’t really care how old they are. If they suit the look I’m going for then I really could care less beyond getting the job done. But I was stunned by what she told me. She mentioned that in her experience many people were turned off by her age. She perfectly recalled an occasion, when a photographer she had just finished shooting with asked her age. When she told him he visibly expressed shock and immediately became dismissive and treated her horribly. I personally just don’t understand the obsessiveness with age. Clearly this model was perfect before the photographer knew her age. I was appalled and very disappointed in this photographer’s behavior. It makes the entire industry seem so very very superficial.  All we really want or really need is a competent and talented subject to meet the criteria of the task. 

I might have known that something was off when she asked the average age of the models I typically work with early in the photo shoot. She was unnaturally interested. When I mentioned all ages she was visibly but pleasantly surprised. I clearly remember saying, “I don’t have an age limit. I only have qualifications. If a person suits those qualifiers then I don’t care. If she is slightly older then all the better since statistics tend to suggests that more mature models are more reliable.” Then she told me her story. I couldn’t get over how someone calling themselves a professional could behave in such a manner. In her estimation, anyone over 30 years of age was at a horrible disadvantage. Clearly she had been shaken and somewhat discouraged by her experiences and given her talent and her looks I was simply baffled why anyone so beautiful might have developed such a distrust and negative attitude about the industry at large.

It didn’t take me long to realize she was not alone. I did a bit of research and spoke to a few colleagues and other models. While there are certainly more mature models working, many have experienced some form of push back when they revealed their age. It wasn’t because they didn’t look the look, walk the proverbial walk or that they didn’t meet all the criteria of the task - NO! It was only because of their age; a simple number that often disqualified them from further consideration.

When did we become so shallow a society to care how old or how young a person is if they perfectly suit the task at hand? In fact, I have argued that on occasion it might be more attractive to seek out a slightly more mature model because of their attention to detail, their work ethic and dedication. Paid or unpaid, collaboration or commissioned, I have never had a model over 30 years of age not show up. From a marketing perspective, any smart person would know that models in their 40s, 50s and 60s is a rapidly growing and sought after group due to the amount of products and services seeking that demographic. More specifically, the amount of quality images needed to promote products to that group is rapidly expanding. It is quite simply, a smart move to work with this rapidly expanding market. If anything, this photographer should be bowing and pleading for the pleasure. But even that is not really the argument here. The lack of common business sense is argument enough for the imbecile that has a problem with age. But what truly perturbs is the fact that this age-nazi expressed no problem whatsoever until he or she actually learned the model’s age. It’s baseless and ignorant to age discriminate for any reason short of not being able to perform the task and that can be true of any person at any age. 

This photographer, whomever they are is simply a fool. It was a tactless thing to do, a blatant lack of professionalism and it shames me to know that someone as kind and as beautiful as this model has to endure such ridicule for being who she is. 

Lucky for me I did photograph her and quite frankly I loved every second of it. She was perfectly qualified, punctual, experienced, respectful, communicable and gorgeous. What else could I possibly want? All things being equal she was perfect and I don’t care how old she is beyond being of legal age. 

Understanding Copyright & Intellectual Property

As it pertains to the ownership of intellectual property, copyright is one of the most difficult concepts for most people to understand. Technology has exacerbated these misconceptions as almost everything we want are moments, sometimes seconds away. Immediate gratification and tech has led to significant misinterpretations about what constitutes ownership of intellectual property and when it comes to copyright, the rules are a bit more complicated. 

You can read the details of copyright law for yourself at www.copyright.gov. As it relates to this subject, copyright nearly 100% of the time belongs to the creator of that property. As it pertains to photographic works and design, it is the creator (filmmaker, photographer, designer) that holds exclusive ownership over that material. That means you cannot copy it, scan it, re-distribute it, license it, modify it, edit it, even so much as change the color of it in any media type without specific and uncontested proof of permission from the copyright holder (the creator).

Let me use an example to place intellectual property into perspective. Let us look at software. You’ve gone to the store and purchased your next scheduled upgrade of software; let’s assume it’s Windows 8. You’ve paid for it. You believe you own Windows 8. Actually you do not own anything. You have purchased a license agreement for personal use for your home computer. Microsoft owns Windows 8 and you are purchasing a CD/disc or download which grants you a limited license to install a copy of their software on your system. You cannot change it, edit it, copy it, redistribute it and do anything that changes the fundamental properties of that software or the manner it is distributed. It is not yours. You’re leasing it in a sense. If by chance you manage to copy it you have just violated copyright law and subject to the maximum penalty with such an offense simply because you made a copy of it onto another disc. 

Other intellectual property is not considerably dissimilar. Consider photographs. The holidays have arrived and you have found a professional photographer to take images of your entire family to make greeting cards. You’ve found the photographer, paid the booking fee if applicable and paid the fee he or she charges for such a session. You ordered a few prints for your wall and photo album and possibly purchased downloads to go on your social networking site like Facebook. Then another relative says they would like a copy of a specific image. You do not really want to bother the photographer and more so you do not want to spend the money by ordering one more print or download. So you place the image you have on your alleged high end scanner/printer at home and copy and print your own. You know what? You just violated several rules of copyright law and subject to fines and severe penalties. But you believed that you paid for it once why pay again. What you have failed to realize that payment alone does not transfer copyright ownership and more specifically, it does not grant you the right to re-distribute, copy, or modify intellectual property that belongs to someone else. 

Just like software, you cannot legally burn discs of operating system software and give it to your family or your friends without severe legal repercussions if and when you’re caught. Most creators give clients the option to purchase exclusive property ownership. However, such situations are rare and often expensive. The photographer has to consider any and all associated advertising potential, future sales, add on sales, promotional potential and creative ownership that property has and ever will have. Your $10,000 wedding images may easily be $25,000 if a photographer chooses to give up all ownership to that property. Unless he or she has written a specific statement that grants you copyright ownership of those images, then you do not and will not ever own them. Even death of photographer does not necessarily transfer ownership. It often goes to heirs, the business entity under which the property was created or their estate.  

Technology has created a few gray areas in copyright law due to online sharing and digitized content. Law like many things, is often up to interpretation by the end user or the person committing the infraction. But as far as the letter of the law, it is very clear when an infraction may or has occurred. If you purchased a print or photograph whether you paid for it or not, then you scanned it and put it on your Facebook profile; officially you broke the law by violating intellectual property rights. However, it will probably slide by if the photographer does not file suit against you. Most would not because they may want the exposure. More than likely they would not because they do not have the financial resources to combat such an infraction. But I have known a few to do so and the violator nearly always lost in court. What is often considered is the lost of revenue for current, future and all associated sales that image would have had if it remained under the intellectual property control of the creator. It can get very expensive for what you may think is a small infraction. As it pertains to law, ignorance does not equate to innocence.

There are very few situations where copyright may not always automatically fall to the creator. Such cases might be in a business environment when a photographer is an employee of a business entity and the entity itself assumes the right of the creator. Yet, even these cases are argumentative short of an agreement between the designer, photographer or filmmaker to the contrary.

It is best to know and protect your rights not only as the creator but also as the client or business. Seal the rights, uses, and privileges with an agreement outlining how, when, where and why intellectual property will and can be used. 

Consumer Psychology and Advertising

How effective has advertising been on you? If you don't believe your being influenced simply look around as you go about your day. Look at billboards, product labels, banners, signs, web pages, television commercials. It's literally everywhere and it is so pervasive that we discount it as a type of visual background noise that we sub-consciously block out. Or do we?

Despite what you may think you're absorbing it all; yet, the brain simply discounts those things that it doesn't find relevant and move those other things that interests us into the forefront. Everyday of your life your mind is being conditioned both consciously and subconsciously. Many of our influences we are not even aware of. Advertisers know this and through intense marketing studies, trial and error, analytics, surveys, etc. they're all trying to find the right combination of visual and audio tidbits that peak your interest and spur you to action. It is such a deep and analytical process that a branch of psychology known as consumer psychology exist to study all the things that makes us stop and look and ultimately shop. 

So the next time you see an ad and experience an unusual sense of deja vu, it's working on you. But the most pervasive, and the most effective advertising permeates our every day life with such clever placement that you're buying without even knowing why that particular product is your first choice. Perhaps you saw it on a billboard, a flyer, in a pamphlet or remember the color combination. When the effectiveness plateaus, marketers hope you're in a position where you're ready to purchase and the most basic elements of marketing comes full circle... Product, Promotion, Price and Place. 

The New Trend: Brand Deterioration with Haste Design

It's a scary thing to realize; that everywhere you look technology is making multimedia, photography, website design and other marketing and creative specialist tools available to Joe Blow down the street. But not how you might think. I welcome technology. It is at the very heart of marketing, advertising and design industries. It is the means by which my work gets done. But are we abandoning the fundamental principles of good business and design with technology. Are we building websites without regard to the mechanism of business such as branding, marketing, strategy development, a business or marketing plan? We are and it is a terrifying realization when technology has made a task that required a Masters Degree five years ago and turned it into child's play with a couple of clicks. You hardly need to know web programming anymore with the onslaught of CMS options. You don't need special training in darkrooms to do photography anymore; just click and stitch; copy, past, and publish. 


What does all this mean really? It means our sensibilities toward good market strategy is inversely proportionate to our technological advancement in the tools that implements that strategy. When taking a properly exposed photograph is as easy as clicking without thinking about composition, where does the artistry lie? You inherit an Internet with literally billions of photographs that mean or accomplishes nothing. With thousands of sites popping up on the Internet everyday from everyone with a computer loaded with templates, where is the branding strategy, how does the business get customers, does the business have a marketing plan or a business plan? How does that site build your brand? If you're still reading you're beginning to see what's happening. Our own faster, smaller, cheaper, yesterday mentality is devaluing our economic infrastructure and our ability to develop true skills. While that same mentality attributed to economic growth and opportunities for many, our misapplication or failure to understand the implications of our new toys will lead to a gross devaluation of our organizational identity. 


I applaud the photographer who hasn't completely abandoned film. He or she understands the process, has developed an eye for lighting, a talent for perspective, and an intuition for composition. I respect the draftsman who still has parallel bars and a full set of drafting pens and pencils with protractors. I adore the graphic designer who has spent a few years in sales, advertising, marketing, and business development to understand the components of good design. When did it become smart to hold a contest to whomever produces the best new logo design for a company? That's appalling and downright terrifying. What happened to the professionals that understand the business, the market, and the psychology of true marketing and advertising; the professional that understand ROI and demographic studies?


We're abandoning basic business principles for speed and cost and it ends up costing more in the end. It's time to go back to basics and get a grasp for bottom up economics and business practices. 

Eco-Friendly Photography & Design: When Being Green is Better

I believe that eco-responsibility is something that extends to all of us. Unfortunately I still don't hear photographers, graphic designers, and general business owners talk about it enough. Or talk is all they do. We all share the same planet, breath the same air, and these commonalities bond all of us. We are all ecological neighbors on this world. As a photographer and graphic designer I have wondered about things I can do to decrease my carbon footprint and try to become more eco conscience.

Print design has the potential to use large amounts of paper; particularly during the proofing process. Despite having monitors, print designers often have to see how each image or each layout might look on different media. We experiment with textures of media, weights, colors, acidities, and varying opacities. We have to be more conscience of our waste. We have to start exercising a higher degree of mental retention and write and record what works and what doesn’t instead of increasing the size of our landfills. We have to think about the amount of ink we use and try to reduce our use of inks with toxins that can harm the environment such as lead based inks. The recycling of empty ink cartridges is a start and disposing of them in the proper way is extremely beneficial. Email more proofs instead of using paper. 

Consistency is important in this business and our responsibility to give our clients a perfectly repeatable image and message is tied to our success as designers and photographers. There is a high degree of variance that can come with proofing from monitors and different printers but we can limit our paper proofing a little until we’re near the final designs, where color is consistency becomes more critical. Buying a series of printers with a recognized standardization on color is a beginning to reducing paper waste. Using energy efficient equipment and turning off our monitors and computers when they’re not in continued use is a start. Requesting recycled paper when possible for our large less critical print jobs is a huge bonus. 

Even as a web developer I’ve searched for different things and I discovered a web host that harnesses wind power to run their servers while others are utilizing solar energy. I had never heard of such an ingenious solution being applied to such high technology and I have plans to use these hosts for upcoming web projects when plausible. 

We have a great responsibility but also a wonderful opportunity to do some amazing things.