2012: “You don’t have to be a fucking psychic to see it”
© JP Ahonen (used here with his permission)
Excuse me my French in the headline – but that is literally the last line of the comic strip above. I know the majority of readers can read Finnish, but those who cannot: the reference here is to the deals Sanoma Magazines Finland is trying to push thru. Loyal to the spirit of doing business in that company (Sanoma Corporation) they mailed these one-sided “we want everything / we will not pay for it / should the shit hit the fan, you are responsible” -deals as a Xmas presents to the people – sorry: not people but freelancers – working for them.
Instead of “Seasons Greetings” or “Merry Xmas” the message was: “Sign or you will not work for us. This is not negotiable”
Basically the content was the same as discussed e.g in my blog post What IF?
And by loyal I mean: Sanoma News (same corporation) did the same last summer in mid-June, knowing that everybody was going off to their annual holiday – i.e. just to make sure all the lawyers who might offer some counseling were not in the office (see blog post).
Aller (another publisher) missed the holidays two years ago, but timed it accurately so that the union lawyers were on holiday… (see blog post)
I mean, it would be funny coincidence… but it is not. It just another display of the ruthless attitude so prevalent presently.
Ski Jumping: Four Hills Tournament 2011-2012
Tom Hilde falls in Garmish-Partenkirchen. Click image to view a gallery (iPad compatible)
Just a brief post to show that I actually do work for a living… Covering the “Vierschanzentournee” – or as it is called in English, the Four Hills Tournament. I did the Oberstdorf already two days ago and just finished the Garmish-Partenkirchen competition.
Copyright 101
Maybe you should learn the basics?
I was pretty pissed off when I wrote my previous post (maybe you could tell?)
Writing a follow-up is not easy. Trying to stay calm. I can already see the commentary: “You are milking the subject, yesterday’s news, oh just quit whining, blah, blah, blah…”
Yet, it needs to be done.
I have read the commentary on my previous blogpost – plus the discussion in numerous websites in Finland (and elsewhere) – plus the emails….
No, I am not going to comment back to “The-Danish-photographer-Kari-Kuuk-had-his-picture-stolen…” and “quite(meaning “quit” I guess…?)-whining-and-you-cannot-be-taken-seriously-as-you-can’t-spell (either Finnish or English)…” and “don’t-you-understand-how-hard-it-is-to-create-a-computer-games-and-Steve-Jobs-had-nothing-to-do-with-it…”
You get my drift? 
Not worth it.
But: there are two repeating themes which need addressing: “Bullshit! It’s always about the money” and “You put it in the net: thus, it’s there for everybody to take”.
LA Times today
We – professional press photographers – do know that what we have been doing for decades as a profession is dying. Along with the daily print – but that’s another matter – I’ve been talking about it in this blog ad nauseam.
Yet the stunt LA Times et al. just pulled leaves me totally without words.
My good friend and colleague Matti Matikainen called me up couple of hours ago and said:” Guess what? LA Times, Daily Mail, Tech Crunch etc. just crabbed my image from the net and printed it. Didn’t ask for permission, did not offer to pay for it, nothing… they just printed it.”
Shooting 360°x180° Images – from a Helicopter
Probably the strangest self-portrait I have ever taken...Click the image to view.
This is a small demo. Please note: this works (properly) only with HTML5 compliant browser - such as Safari on a Mac. It works on iPad2 (i.e. Mobile Safari) but it does NOT work with iPad 1st gen. nor iPhone (except – I was told – it does work with iPhone 4S) – due to non-optimized media and subsequently high processing load. Thats’ why it is called a demo i.e. it is not a finished product - it doesn’t have to be perfect…
I have been presenting it couple of times now (in different formats) when I have been talking about the possibilities of visual storytelling and multimedia - and the question always comes: “How the hell did you do that…?”
I also want to dedicate this post to my good friend Peter “Hopper” Stone, who is working in Hollywood / LA and who has been getting into this. I showed him this when I was working for it couple of weeks ago and I promised to write a blog post “one of these days….” Sort of quick tips / pointers as what to take into account when doing something like this. Well, it’s been couple of weeks instead of days – sorry about it, dude – but here we go.
“Stop the Press”
Painokoneet Seis by Johanna Vehkoo. Published by TEOS.
Or “Painokoneet Seis – kertomuksia uuden journalismin ajasta” it is called in Finnish. A very good book everybody working in the present media scene should read. Written by journalist Johanna Vehkoo during her two year leave of absence in Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism in Oxford and published couple of months back (by Teos).
Seriously, if you work in the media or you are at all interested where our media is heading – or more maybe where it is NOT heading – and what are the choices or what might be the smartest thing to do right now, you really should read this.
Lots of the things she discusses are the same themes you have been reading on the pages of e.g. this blog – and elsewhere – during the past couple of years. But it is more the way how she just wraps it up, in very clear Finnish, in a very concise manner and makes it pretty obvious that the present model is just not working – and you are stupid if you do not see and acknowledge this.
That the road chosen by the traditional publishing houses simply just repeats all the mistakes committed elsewhere.
Paradigm Shift
The www.apple.com page this week....
This is not an eulogy. This is not so much about Apple or the man – Steve Jobs – either. This is about the paradigm shift he introduced which people don’t seem to get. And this is about our future.
But: I cannot write this without paying homage to somebody I have always respected immensely. I choose to say it with the words of another man I respect very much – Seth Godin. It was actually from his blog I got the news when I opened my iPad in the morning – a post very appropriately titled “A eulogy of action“.
“I can’t compose a proper eulogy for Steve Jobs. There’s too much to say, too many capable of saying it better than I ever could.
It’s one thing to miss someone, to feel a void when they’re gone. It’s another to do something with their legacy, to honor them through your actions.
Steve devoted his professional life to giving us (you, me and a billion other people) the most powerful device ever available to an ordinary person. Everything in our world is different because of the device you’re reading this on.
What are we going to do with it?”
- Set Godin -
I decided to write this when I was following the news after Steve Job’s passing away and one comment which I heard several times – including our MTV3 evening news – was that “he gave us gadgets we did not even know we needed” – said with a bit sarcastic undertone. And I thought: now, wait a minute…
Read more…
What IF….?
Case 1 and my "real work" from Finland vs. Sweden Athletics...
In the past weeks, I have had so many conversations on Reijo, rights grabbing, Sanoma et al. contracts… People are eager to know what is going on, but they are somehow totally lost in this. And the moment I try to explain it in abstract terms… I see that nervous flicker in the eyes – you know what I am talking about: when the other person politely listens to what you got to say but does not register a word…
So I thought: I make this “Rights Grabbing 101″ – and explain with three hypothetical yet concrete examples – all from my own work during the past couple of weeks – what would have happened had I signed a contract such as the one Sanoma News and others are aggressively pushing.
Things which Make me Happy…
Click image to enter multimedia. (Published with permission)
The repulsive dog-vomit published by HS last week really bothered me (ref. to my previous post), then some personal hate-mail, the death of a someone dear to me… Put it this way: I’ve had better weeks than the previous one. I really have.
So I thought: I want to share and write something positive. Show that life is not only gloomy and dark – but that there are other things; things happening which really make me happy – and somehow make it easier to stand all the shit which sometimes gets poured over you. Small things, but personally very important. People who care and who make a difference. I’d like to mention two of them here – a sort of “thank you” and giving credit where it is due.
Reality Check – like Now?
(© JP Ahonen / Julkaistaan tekijän luvalla)
( This post will be in Finnish – this is probably one time only exception in this blog, but it is because I am quoting and referencing Finnish material extensively.)
Tänään aamulla maamme virallisena historiankirjoittajana pidetty Helsingin Sanomat julkaisi kolumnin Sytytä Kynttilä Reijolle. Ymmärrän kolumnin kirjoittamisen taiteenlajina – mutta kyseinen kirjoittaja Virpi Salmi meni nyt kaikkien rimojen alitse ja sohaisi muurahaispesään pahemman kerran. Kehoitan lukemaan ennen kaikkea ko. kolumnin kommentit huolella sekä esim. FB:ssä siitä käytyä keskustelua. Veikkaan että maksoi Hesarille aikamoisen nipun tilaajia.
Toisaalta Salmea on pakko ymmärtää: jollain pitää työnantajalta pinnoja lypsää ja jos päätoimittaja tällaisen lehmänläjän tilaa, niin pakkohan se on kirjoitaa. Ja saihan hän siinä ne Andy Warhollin mainostamat 15 minuuttia kuuluisuutta.
Eniten tässä surettaa kuitenkin maan isoimman päivälehden vajoaminen tälle tasolle. Julkaistaan tällaista sontaa (viimeisten BB-kuulumisien ohella ), mutta jätetään julkaisematta mm. journalistiliiton vastine päätoimittajan absurdeihin väitteisiin ja suoranaisiin valheisiin, joita hän on tässä viime päivinä julkisuudessa auliisti jaellut.
