PJ. Morley

One of the largest microstock agencies has been the victim of a phishing attack. iStockphoto reported that a phishing attack had taken place on their forums and through their sitemail system but they managed to close it down very quickly. According to the report, the attack took users to a fake login screen that then collected username and password information on a different server and then redireceted users back to the real iStockphoto site.

It isn’t stated how many people were caught out by this attack but the advice given is to change your password as soon as possible and at other sites where you use the same password.

You can’t blame iStockphoto for this attack, it could happen at any site where they allow forum access and have sitemail but if you have a habit of using the same username and password over multiple sites, it wouldn’t take a genius to guess which other microstock photography sites you belong to leaving you vulnerable to someone hacking your accounts.

An update to the Counter Terrorism Act 2000, now the Counter Terrorism Act 2008 came into force on 16th February 2009 with some interesting new additions in relation to photography. In particular section 76 which could make it an offence to photograph police officers with offenders facing up to a 10 year prison sentence.

The story has been reported on several photography news sites and there are related discussions popping up on photography forums but is it another restriction on the rights of photographers or an over reaction by the photography community in general?

Continue Reading »

If you can’t be bothered reading my long drawn out discussion then the short answer is ‘Yes’. You should pay models.

But let me quickly clarify my stance on this. The following relates to situations where photographs are taken with the intention marketing those photos for sale, in particular, stock photography. It doesn’t apply to situations where a new model is looking to build their portfolio but can’t or doesn’t want to pay the extortionate prices charged for those dodgy looking makeover photos.

Every now and again, this question pops up on photography forums and invariably, the discussion is quickly polarised into those who think you should pay a model and those who vomit at the very thought of it. So why is this such a tricky question to answer?

Continue Reading »

I got a note from Jeff Banke suggesting I add 3 more ways to convert images to black and white following my previous tutorials. Well Jeff knows a thing or two about photography and you can see some of his images by clicking on his name, so I’ve included them here…

Continue Reading »

Following on from the recent article about the response from the Prime Minister in relation to photography in public, the new guidelines published by the National Policing Improvement Agency may be a little more helpful.

Continue Reading »