Clip-up Night Submission Deadline Soon!

It's not too late to submit your image for the first ever CAPIC Prairies ClipUp night, coming June 2 at 7:30pm to the upper level of the Rose and Crown in Calgary.

The ClipUp event will be held as part of CAPIC's monthly Xchange night and this month's theme is 'Transform'.

You can submit your images either to the CAPIC FTP site, or you can print them yourself and bring them along on the night.

Images uploaded to the FTP site have a submission deadline of May 30th, 2008 at 12 noon. By using the CAPIC FTP site to submit your images, Technicare will provide an 11x14 print for free and will bring it along to the event and clip it up for you.

If you prefer to print your own image, you can bring it with you on the night and a CAPIC member will be near the entrance to the back of the upper level to accept your submission.

You can interpret the 'Transform' theme anyway you like and remember that the submissions are to be anonymous, so make sure you don't tell people which image is yours!

Appetizers will be provided by The Camera Store, a sponsor of the event, but you must buy your own drinks.
RSVPs are appreciated at prairie@capic.org.

You don't have to be in attendance or in Calgary to participate in this event and ClipUp night is open to any member of CAPIC Prairies, including students.

If you win and you do not live in Calgary you will be notified by e-mail and your Golden Clip award will be sent to you.

Let's make the first ClipUp Night a big success and let's see how many prints we can get on display!

How to Upload to the CAPIC Prairie ClipUp FTP site:
1. Name your print (important): firstname_lastname_clipup
2. Upload the work in one of the following ways:Simply click the following link Capic Prairie ClipUp FTP and enter the username and password from below. Click on "choose file" and select the image you want and hit "upload" or you can use Fetch or Transmit to upload the file using the login information below.

Host: http://ftp.jgimages.ca/
Username: capic
Password: clipup

Event address:
Rose and Crown
2nd level
1503 4 Street SW
Calgary, AB Sphere: Related Content

CAPIC Prairies Stepping Up Their Game

The Prairies chapter of a national organization who promote advocacy for photographers and illustrators has been gaining momentum this year through increased membership and a full calendar of events.

CAPIC, the Canadian Association of Photographers and Illustrators in Communications, encompasses photographers, illustrators and digital artists from throughout Canada and is more than one thousand members strong.

Started in Toronto in 1978 as a not-for-profit group, CAPIC is now split into a number of different chapters, with the Prairies chapter presently boasting around 80 members.

“As visual arts professionals we tend to work in isolation,” said Brett Gilmour, owner of Brett Gilmour Photography and Vice President of Membership for the association. “Through CAPIC we can stay in touch with fellow photographers as well as staying in touch with the industry.”

Brett believes that it is beneficial for visual artists to be a part of CAPIC because the association provides members with a means of communication with other like-minded people, as well as helping them to further their professional careers.

“Through the portfolio gallery that CAPIC runs, clients have been able to find and contact me,” said Brett. “Not only that but if I cannot work a job due to prior commitments, I can refer that client to another member knowing that there is a certain level of professionalism in place.”

Although a national organization, each CAPIC chapter operates autonomously, running their own events and memberships, even providing members with life insurance policies and discounts from numerous industry-related businesses.

The CAPIC Prairies chapter has begun to blossom in the past four years and are now looking to boost membership by hosting a number of different events throughout the year.

“We understand that there has to be a reason to join, something tangible that we can give back to our members,” said Brett.

The Prairies chapter holds a monthly Xchange night, usually on the first Monday of each month, where photographers and illustrators can get together to exchange ideas and where new members can meet mentors. Not only that, but the chapter will be holding an annual Stampede party as well as its first ever Clipup night on June 2, something that is very exciting to members.

“Clip up night is great because it allows members from all over the Prairies to participate because they can submit their work electronically,” said Brett, now in his third term as a board member. “Next month’s theme is ‘Transform.’ People will submit their work to one print house. The images will then be hung without name cards and everyone attending will get two secret votes– with the winner receiving the coveted Clipup trophy.”

Brett hopes that the increase of calendar events will encourage more members to join the association as well as providing them with more outlets in which to connect with other visual artists.

“We are really focused on bringing student members to CAPIC,” said Brett. “We realize that in order to develop the future of CAPIC, we must begin at the grass roots level.”

The future of CAPIC looks strong, with members hoping to unify the association nationally in order to create a stronger front and to raise awareness of the organization and its goals.

New student members can join CAPIC for a nominal fee of $10 annually. For other membership information contact Brett Gilmour at Brett@BrettGilmour.com or (403) 540-5530.

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ACT NOW!

A message from the President and the Copyright Chair of CAPIC

The United States Congress is on the verge of voting on a Bill called the "ORPHAN WORKS BILL''. Lobbyists from the motion picture industry, the internet industry, associations of museums and others are promoting this Bill. This proposed legislation stipulates that any work where the author is not known could be used and commercialized at will if a "reasonably diligent search" has failed to find the author. The scope of this "reasonably diligent search" would be determined by the user/infringer.

This Bill targets all types of work: from professional paintings to family snapshots, artistic work, commercial work, personal and wedding photos, published or non-published, from literary works, to music, to visual arts, to film and works that reside or have ever resided on the internet or have been disseminated by any media.

The Bill may be more damaging to the visual arts and music because this kind of work is more frequently disseminated on the web without due credit or, in some instances, with the artists name removed. This will also have an enormous impact on indigenous people's culture since their work is never attributed to any individual.

Consider an example: How would a person from Arkansas or Nigeria know about this law, that it even exists, that it affects him, that he has to register in an American registry for a fee, to protect his wedding picture or pictures of his children from being used by an American corporation or a non-for-profit-organization that may reflect values that are against his religion or his ethics which could add insult to injury? This is the just one instance of the damage the passage of this bill into law could do.

At the same time this Bill will promote the creation of privately held commercial registries. Private corporations will be able to create registries where all authors will have to register all of their work to protect them from becoming orphaned: ie; for a photographer, every click of the camera, for an illustrator, every sketch. Any work not registered could become orphaned and could be used and/or commercialized by any American entity. It will be the private sector that will decide the cost and the means of registering one's work.

Even if this Bill becomes a law in the United-States it will have a very big impact on creators around the world, on creators like you and me. This Bill, when passed into law, will not make any difference between the works created by an American citizen and the works created by anyone else in the world.
The implication is that EVERY work from everyone in the world would have to be registered in the USA. This will create two different worlds with unfair competition: Only Americans will be able to appropriate most of the world work's, while this practice will stay illegal in the rest of the world. Meanwhile, it may well induce a crash in the price of licensing work everywhere else.

This law violates the international Berne Treaty and the TRIP negotiations (Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property TRIPs UNESCO.)
It may be susceptible to an international lawsuit under international treaties.

Many American creator's associations are against this Bill. They are asking their members to write letters to Congressman and Senators. They are also asking the same from the international community.

When this law is enacted in the US, the same lobbies will ask other governments to do likewise. If we do not voice our concern now it may be difficult to voice it later with credibility when the same law may be presented in one's own country.

We are asking you to take a minute and write a letter and fax it to Washington. Do not think it won't make a difference. It will.

A letter that you could use is available via the link below (In the post below). The link is to the Illustrators' Partnership in the US. We agree with their arguments.

This Bill could be voted on in a few weeks. We urge you to act in the next few days.


Andre Cornellier and Ewan Nicholson
Copyright Chair and President
CAPIC
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Sample letter for artists

Below is a link to a sample letter that you may edit to personalize.

We recommend that you send copies to the four U.S. agencies listed on the web page. Faxing is recommended. (Postal mail can be delayed 2 - 3 weeks due to off-site security screening prior to arrival on Capitol Hill.)

We also urge you to contact your government and urge intervention. Please help spread the word by forwarding this information to every artist that you know. Thank you.


Click here for a SAMPLE LETTER FOR INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS and the address of where to send your letter.
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What to wear for your business portrait

We know how difficult it can be to decide what to wear when you are going for your business portrait sitting.

Trying to figure out how professional you should look, what colours will look best, whether or not to wear that paisley tie: all of these things can make sitting for a business portrait a daunting task. But it doesn't need to be!

To help you out we have created a handy PDF file that you can download for free that will give you some guidelines to follow so that you can look your best for that business portrait.


Download PDF here Sphere: Related Content

First Ever CAPIC Xchange Night

You are invited!

CAPIC, The Canadian Association of Photographers and Illustrators in Communications, is hosting an evening at the Rose and Crown on May 5. It's the perfect opportunity to meet photographers and illustrators that create your image.

Xchange night is a venue for Xchanging ideas and information between photographers, illustrators and the public. Coming Xchange Nights include guest speakers and special events.

Xchange Night will be held the first monday of every month, with the exception of long weekends.

Join us at Rose and Crown, 1503 4 Street SW, at 730pm.
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Architectural Photographer

Are Your Images Safe?

How does your photographer protect your valuable images?

Gilmour Photography protects every image from the camera to the archive. The instant the shutter clicks a duplicate RAW image is captured on a back-up drive. Instant back-up means that in the event of data loss, damage or corruption we always have another copy of your images.

Before leaving your shoot the images are backed up in triplicate. Upon arrival at the studio the images are archived in perpetuity in our triple redundant digital vault.

When a hard drive crashes or a disc is damaged we always have another copy. If you lose an image we can send you a replacement the same day across our ftp delivery system.

We protect the images because we care about your business.

Visit my website for more info!
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