cosmicnut
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London Super Comic Con
1 min read
I'm settled in at the hotel for the weekend. Bit strange this one, the US Cosplay guests outnumber the UK ones. Hopefully I'll manage to grab a shot of VampBeauty. Been following her amazing work for a while now. However, my back is back to normal (fingers crossed) so if you're going, you should see me stalking the halls. Rented a pretty powerful camera so expect the next uploads to be a little larger than normal. 50 megapixel large! Of course I will spend a lot of time swapping memory cards....
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darn....
1 min read
Sorry to the cosplayers of lagc. My back is really killing me, so I'm going to camp in the main hall till the masquerade. I'll try and do a bit of a walk around afterwards. A pity as there are some great outfits around today!
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Reduction in new content
5 min read
October may be the last time I go to an MCM run event so the number of new images a year may go down significantly.
I thought I would post why.
MCM is a commercial convention. I have no problem with this. Its the only way you get to see some guests and it can handle larger venues and crowds. They and the companies at the convention need to make money to keep things going. Again, I accept this and have no problem with this.
The problem is, they have just officially codified new rules for photographers and they kinda suck. Some I understand and are good for safety and the security of the attendees, I welcome these rules. I would like to think those in my chosen hobby were also pure soles but that's not the case and having rules like this is a good thing. Others seem to be there to restrict what the average attendee can do in favor of the money making businesses that have grown around cosplay
Here's a link to the new rules
www.facebook.com/download/1624…
in short, they are banning equipment not held by the photographer. This includes stands and other non-held equipment as well as equipment like reflectors and remote flashes held by helpers.
They have also said the we have to pay MCM £500 for any photographs used commercially.
Some photographers take large lighting rigs and can be pretty dangerous but to ban hand held equipment!
No mention, however, is made of those shooting video which take up a lot of space and often have large bulky steady cams and lights that get swung around wildly
Some of this is due to the fact we are getting a lot more professional photographers and studios buying tables in the main halls. The thing with photography is that a salable photo from an event like MCM is as much a matter of luck, being in the right place at the right time, as it is skill. On location shoots and in the studio skill is paramount but not the main element in the type of journalism style photography you do walking the halls of MCM. A good amateur image could earn more than a professional that spent a fair amount of money buying space in the halls
No mention is made of rules for those with press passes. So it dangerous for me to ask a friend to hold my flash but a proper pap can set up whatever they wish!?
£500 is also waaaaay too high and seems to be there as a disincentive to us amateurs. I don't sell my images as I believe in getting permission first (even though in the UK you don't have to) and I'm too busy running around to get contact details. Even if I did, I doubt I would raise enough money to cover that fee let alone make any profit.
Some of this is due to con images appearing for sale in Getty images and other stock art sources. This has upset a lot of cosplayers (quite rightly) that have put a lot of time and effort into their costumes and photographers are making money on their work without asking for permission let alone compensating the cosplayer in any way.
A better (probably unworkable) solution would be to insist that photographers obtain a model release for each image they sell, possibly insisting on an MCM branded agreement that the photographer would have to buy pads of from MCM for a low fee. This way MCM gets some money, the cosplayer gets some control and the photographers don't get stiffed. Heck just a scannable area of the wristband and an app would do it all automatically.
Another issue is that they do not say how this will be implemented. Will it be by gophers that are given a good amount of training on these rules? Will it be the security staff who've been given 5 seconds to read the rules? If I get chucked out because someone has misinterpreted the rules, can I object? It'd not clear and can go very VERY wrong.
"but Cosmic, you don't use stand alone or remote gear and you don't sell your images!" I hear you think (hey, I',m scary that way). true, but there is principal here. SOME of the upswing in popularity of geeky past times, cosplay and geek conventions are due to images from convention goers with simple cameras. Some more professional cosplay artists owe their popularity photos taken by a random passer by, not even a amateur. I won't be able to relax and enjoy the even as I will be waiting for some over taxes volunteer to yell at me and kick me out.
Now we are seeing the growth of businesses and a complete industry building from our passion and the fans/amateurs are being squeezed out as "we hurt their business". I'm sorry but if you are a professional photographer and can't earn more than a guy with no training and second hand equipment, you're doing it wrong!
I'll see how things go, I won't try and get a refund for October as I've made other arrangements that can't be canceled and changed may be made. However, if there aren't any changes to these new rules I doubt I'll be at another MCM run event
I thought I would post why.
MCM is a commercial convention. I have no problem with this. Its the only way you get to see some guests and it can handle larger venues and crowds. They and the companies at the convention need to make money to keep things going. Again, I accept this and have no problem with this.
The problem is, they have just officially codified new rules for photographers and they kinda suck. Some I understand and are good for safety and the security of the attendees, I welcome these rules. I would like to think those in my chosen hobby were also pure soles but that's not the case and having rules like this is a good thing. Others seem to be there to restrict what the average attendee can do in favor of the money making businesses that have grown around cosplay
Here's a link to the new rules
www.facebook.com/download/1624…
in short, they are banning equipment not held by the photographer. This includes stands and other non-held equipment as well as equipment like reflectors and remote flashes held by helpers.
They have also said the we have to pay MCM £500 for any photographs used commercially.
Some photographers take large lighting rigs and can be pretty dangerous but to ban hand held equipment!
No mention, however, is made of those shooting video which take up a lot of space and often have large bulky steady cams and lights that get swung around wildly
Some of this is due to the fact we are getting a lot more professional photographers and studios buying tables in the main halls. The thing with photography is that a salable photo from an event like MCM is as much a matter of luck, being in the right place at the right time, as it is skill. On location shoots and in the studio skill is paramount but not the main element in the type of journalism style photography you do walking the halls of MCM. A good amateur image could earn more than a professional that spent a fair amount of money buying space in the halls
No mention is made of rules for those with press passes. So it dangerous for me to ask a friend to hold my flash but a proper pap can set up whatever they wish!?
£500 is also waaaaay too high and seems to be there as a disincentive to us amateurs. I don't sell my images as I believe in getting permission first (even though in the UK you don't have to) and I'm too busy running around to get contact details. Even if I did, I doubt I would raise enough money to cover that fee let alone make any profit.
Some of this is due to con images appearing for sale in Getty images and other stock art sources. This has upset a lot of cosplayers (quite rightly) that have put a lot of time and effort into their costumes and photographers are making money on their work without asking for permission let alone compensating the cosplayer in any way.
A better (probably unworkable) solution would be to insist that photographers obtain a model release for each image they sell, possibly insisting on an MCM branded agreement that the photographer would have to buy pads of from MCM for a low fee. This way MCM gets some money, the cosplayer gets some control and the photographers don't get stiffed. Heck just a scannable area of the wristband and an app would do it all automatically.
Another issue is that they do not say how this will be implemented. Will it be by gophers that are given a good amount of training on these rules? Will it be the security staff who've been given 5 seconds to read the rules? If I get chucked out because someone has misinterpreted the rules, can I object? It'd not clear and can go very VERY wrong.
"but Cosmic, you don't use stand alone or remote gear and you don't sell your images!" I hear you think (hey, I',m scary that way). true, but there is principal here. SOME of the upswing in popularity of geeky past times, cosplay and geek conventions are due to images from convention goers with simple cameras. Some more professional cosplay artists owe their popularity photos taken by a random passer by, not even a amateur. I won't be able to relax and enjoy the even as I will be waiting for some over taxes volunteer to yell at me and kick me out.
Now we are seeing the growth of businesses and a complete industry building from our passion and the fans/amateurs are being squeezed out as "we hurt their business". I'm sorry but if you are a professional photographer and can't earn more than a guy with no training and second hand equipment, you're doing it wrong!
I'll see how things go, I won't try and get a refund for October as I've made other arrangements that can't be canceled and changed may be made. However, if there aren't any changes to these new rules I doubt I'll be at another MCM run event
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Mcm day 2
1 min read
I'm at MCM London again. It's absolutely MASSIVE. There are a tonne of people here and it's not opened yet.
Already started working on yesterday's images. Will upload as soon as possible
Already started working on yesterday's images. Will upload as soon as possible
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Nearly there
1 min read
I'm a little slow at getting the the "London Film and Comicon" images up, but I'm nearly there!
Just realized I now have over 2000 COSPLAY images on line!!!!
Just realized I now have over 2000 COSPLAY images on line!!!!
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