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Fairfax County to Meet Wednesday, Jan. 21, to Hear Comments on New Photographer Permit Fees (UPDATED 1/22)

January 15, 2015 By exposeddc

Stealth wedding photography by Caroline Angelo
Stealth wedding photography by Caroline Angelo

UPDATE (1/22/2015): Kat has posted a detailed report on her website of what transpired at the meeting last night. In short, it was very positive for photographers! The largest turn out ever seen at a Parks Authority Meeting made their views heard prompting an acknowledgement from Board members that “the process requires immediate change.” The Board thanked the group for educating them about the industry and how the current fee system affects their livelihood.

Next comes the requisite comment period and subsequent committee to decide what actions to recommend. Any changes or adjustments would come into effect April 1, 2015, but Kat is hopeful that the Board will suspend the permit and fee until a decision has been made, and that the final decision will be to completely remove them both.


This is a guest post by Kat Forder; she owns a portrait studio outside of Baltimore, Md.

Next Wednesday, the Fairfax County Park Authority Board will meet to hear public opinion on photography permit fees. These fees are uniquely applied to photographers in public parks – no other businesses or individuals using public parks are charged a special fee – and Fairfax is the only Virginia county to implement such a fee.

This is the last meeting they will hold before voting whether or not to continue requiring photographers to pay permit fees in all Fairfax County Parks. The rate is currently $100 per use in any public park, but the county has new proposed fees which have not yet been made public.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: News & Opinion Tagged With: fairfax county, family photography, fees, Kat Forder, parks, Permits, private parks, public parks, small businesses, updated, virginia, wedding photography

Friday Links

April 11, 2014 By Meaghan Gay

Poor Horse by Diriki Rice
Poor Horse by Diriki Rice

This week’s exciting fare includes developments in Calumet’s bankruptcy case, lunar eclipse photo ops, the death of the White House selfie, and the announcement of an enormous photo exhibition space.

  • In huge museum news, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) announced Wednesday “the creation of the John and Lisa Pritzker Center for Photography, which will be the largest exhibition space for photography and among the most advanced photographic arts centers of any art museum in the United States.“
  • 100 photographs taken by Irving Penn have been donated to the Smithsonian American Art Museum by his foundation. They’ll go on display in a retrospective opening in 2015.
  • Local photographer Susana Raab is documenting life East of the River: “Hidden behind the public face of its great monuments and political imbroglios, lies another Washington which situates the District of Columbia as the United States’ poorest state, second only to Mississippi.” This work can be seen on her website, as well as in a photo gallery on POLITICO.
  • Is there hope for a return of Calumet Photographic? Possibly. CalPhotoUS is buying up some of their assets, but there is no word yet on whether any stores will reopen.
  • Stars and Stripes has excellent photographs in their Military Photographer of the Year awards. You know you are in for some lovely images when the first of the series resembles the Pieta.
  • It is not too late to use this, but you should act fast. A Photographer’s Guide to the Cherry Blossoms, including locations that are not on the National Mall by Kat Forder.
  • Photographer Robert Dawson has been photographing public libraries across America for 18 years, and has released a book of the images. The photographs say so much about our culture.
  • Tickets are now available to the opening reception of Critical Exposure’s 9th annual exhibit of youth photography. The event is May 21, from 6:00-8:30pm.
  • Smithsonian Magazine announced the winners of their 11th annual photo contest.
  • On April 15 the tax man and the moon man will collide in a lunar eclipse. If you’re going to photograph it, check out our Night Sky Photography for Beginners guide.
  • “If you’re modeling light settings and defining the meter readings about a balanced image against white skin, the contours and shape of a white face, you’ve immediately erased 70% of the world’s population.” Interesting analysis of the racial bias built into camera and film technology.
  • Photographers – the industry may be shrinking, but know that you can always find work as a meerkat lookout post.
  • Photos of some the dogs Michel Vick owned and tortured. These are among a handful of the dogs who have been rehabilitated, and are in loving homes.
  • Oh Big Papi. You may be one of the greatest hitters of all time, but you may go down as the man who killed the White House selfie.
  • Ectoplasm and spirit photography? We don’t know either, but the results are pretty cool.
  • He may be Mr. Spock to most of us, but Leonard Nimoy is also a photographer.
  • The InFocus Project, based in Montgomery County, brought their autistic adult students to the Tidal Basin this week to photograph the cherry blossoms. You can see their work on their website.
  • The Library of Congress celebrated Eadweard Muybridge’s birthday yesterday, and showed off the work of the early photographer.
  • Public “surprised” at the sight of a tiger being walked on a rope leash in Xuzhou, China. We might have chosen a different word.

Filed Under: Friday Links Tagged With: CalPhotoUS, Calumet, Critical Exposure, Eadweard Maybridge, friday links, InFocus Project, Irving Penn, John and Lisa Pritzker Center for Photography, Kat Forder, Leonard Nimoy, Library of Congress, Lunar Eclipse, Meerkat, Michael Vick, Military Photographer of the Year, Robert Dawson, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian Magazine, Stars and Stripes, Susana Raab, tiger

How are Local Retail Photography Businesses Doing? A Survey Says: Not So Great

February 25, 2014 By Meaghan Gay

Love on Meridian Hill by Justin Schuck
Love on Meridian Hill by Justin Schuck

Part of being a good photography business owner is understanding the market for the work you are doing. There are large photography organizations that can provide info on trends in the industry across the country, but finding information on a local level has been more difficult. Photographer Kat Forder is trying to change that, and created a survey last year to understand how retail photographers have been fairing in the D.C. area.

Many of the results from last year’s survey are not good news for retail photographers:  “52% of the respondents reported that their business gross for the previous year was below $30,000.” Forder has brought the survey back for 2014 and made some updates. We caught up with her to get more information about this endeavor.

 1. Can you give us some background on the survey?

The 2013 survey asked retail photographers to look back at the past year (2012). That survey was launched March 2013, timed to coincide with when photographers were attending to their year end bookkeeping, and the results were tabulated and summarized and published a few months after that. This year’s survey has also been released during the end of the fiscal year, and asks for information from the past year.

The survey and the results are free, and the responses are completely anonymous.  The questions have been developed very carefully to ensure the integrity of the responses and anonymity of the participants.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Exposed Interview Tagged With: business, Exposed Interview, family, Kat Forder, professional, Retail, Retail Photography, survey, wedding

2013 Photobooks by D.C. Area Photographers

December 17, 2013 By Meaghan Gay

Street Reading by JEO Photography
Street Reading by Julian Ortiz

Let’s take a look back at some of the photobooks created by hardworking D.C. area photographers this year — some are self published, some are print on demand, and some were created with the help of a publishing house.

We could not have assembled this list without the help of Larissa Leclair, founder of the Indie Photobook Library. The Indie Photobook Library is based in D.C. and is an archive for indie, and self-published books. Much more than just an archive, “the iPL promotes and showcases the books in the collection through international pop-up and feature-length exhibitions, articles, conferences, guest lectures, and also preserves them as a non-circulating public library.” We encourage you to find out more about this great local resource, which is funded by donations.

If you know of a photobook published this year by a D.C. area photographer, please let us know. We will be happy to add it to the list.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Artist Spotlight Tagged With: Adam Ryder, Dean Souleles, E. Brady Robinson, Ginevra Shay, Indie Photobook Library, James Bouché, Jared Soares, John Shumate, Jordan Swartz, Kat Forder, Kyle Tata, Lucian Perkins, photobook, photobooks, Zack Ingram

Dreaming Is Free

October 22, 2013 By Meaghan Gay

Untitled by JEO Photography
Untitled by JEO Photography

Cameras are amazing. Technology has advanced so much in the last ten years that our cameras do things photographers a generation ago never would have thought possible. High ISOs, enormous files sizes, speedlights that do much of the thinking for us, and video capabilities that would make Hitchcock swoon are all functions that easily fit in our camera bags.

However, we are photographers. Technological advances are great, but there are always features that could improve our experience. For example, I would love if Nikon or Canon could build professional level gear that was sized better for women. When working for more than an hour with a heavy camera, large lens and a speedlight, my hand cramps up into a position I like to call “The Claw.” It isn’t just that the gear is heavy, but that my hand doesn’t fit comfortably around it. While I’m at it, I know I am not the only woman who would love a camera strap that fit across my torso without squishing my lady parts.

I am not alone in dreaming about camera changes, so I asked a few local photographers what was on their list of dream camera functions. The answers below are as different as the photographers themselves.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Gear Talk Tagged With: Angela Kleis, Brian Knight, camera functions, Chris Chen, dream list, gear talk, John Ulaszek, Kat Forder

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