The rise of citizen journalism means that in crisis situations anyone might be able to take the photo that will define the event for the next generation. As a photographer, you have the edge. Or at least you should.

If, God forbid, tragedy strikes while you happen to have your camera, what will you do?

This is what we discussed in our May Free Photo Webinar - Photography in crisis situations.

News stories I referenced

30 Photos that Changed the World

Spectator's picture of scene draws attention

Tragedy in Boston: One Photographer's Eyewitness Account

Globe’s Tlumacki: ‘I am dealing with trauma & trying to keep busy’ following Boston tragedy

Marathon Photographer Captures Images of Horror

Marathon's deadly moments captured from office building above finish line

Hurricane Sandy photos

Why Time Magazine Used Instagram to Cover Hurricane Sandy

Citizen journalism examples

CNN iReport

How CNN’s iReport verifies its citizen content

Agency examples

Alamy Live News

Getty Images - News Image Galleries

Submit to Getty Images

News Bureaus

Submit to Reuters

Contact AP News

Photo Philanthropy

Media Grants, Competitions and Workshops 

P.S. One of our listeners asked me to share this link to Jeremy Lock's site as a good example of editorial photojournalism. 

If you are still clinging to the safety of Auto mode but long to try something more creative, here is a quick tutorial for you. I've found that by asking two to three questions, you can choose the correct shooting mode and create great images.

I also wrote a blog post explaining the decision tree. You can read it here. 

When would that be? There’s no rule on when to break the rules, but there is the caution that you need to understand rules before you break them. You should have a pretty good reason why breaking a rule is the best option. Sometimes, you just go with your instinct.

Instinct guided me to break the tried and true Rule of Thirds rule when I was taking these shots at an Arlington National Cemetery burial ceremony. You remember that the Rule of Thirds says the least interesting place for you to place your subject is the center of the frame. I remembered, too, and then that is exactly where I put my subject.

I can’t point to an exact reason why I centered this shot, except the symmetry worked for me. The flag is my focal point, and with a low angle, I stuck it square in the middle of the frame. I think the row of soldiers on each side of the flag begs for that kind of precision. I could easily have stood on either side of the soldiers, but for me, it wouldn’t have the same effect.

Normally when you photograph a person, you stand at a 45 degree angle to great a sense of depth. You would also have the person facing into the frame to create nose room and movement into the frame. I broke both rules for this photo of a ceremonial honor guard. For me, it just had more impact.

Take the challenge

What about you? What rule can you break? Take a photograph where you break a long-established rule of composition. If you need a reminder, pick any of our 21-Week Composition Challenges. Tell us which rule you broke and why.

Share your photos

Once you have a great photo, post it in the comments or in our Google + Photo Projects 2013 community, or liink them in the comments.

Join the Photo Projects 2013 community.

Amateur photographer Ben Thorndike was taking pictures of the Boston Marathon from his office above Boyle Street when the explosion rocked the event. With his camera in sports mode, Ben fired off 25 frames in rapid fire, capturing not just the aftermath of the tragic bombing but also the suspects. His photos were used not only to tell the story of the day but assist the police in identifying and tracking down the bombers.

What would you have done? The Boston Marathon bombing has given us a new opportunity to see how amateur and professional photographers can perform many roles during a crisis. Ben is just one of several stories of how photographers have assisted law enforcement, served as citizen journalists, and documented events for their own uses.

On our May 2013 Free Photo Webinar, we will discuss the role photography has played from 9/11 to Hurricane Katrina, Boston bombings to Hurricane Sandy. What can we learn from the coverage of past events, and what should we know if we end up in the midst of a crisis?

Join us on May 14, 2013, 7 pm est for a discussion on photography in crisis situations.

Believe it or not, giving away your images for free can be the pathway to selling more photos and making more money -- when you use a licensing structure called Creative Commons.

Creative Commons allows photographers to share their work by pre-authorizing the types of uses you will allow. Here's how it works.

You make your work available in a pool of images used by individuals, bloggers, and companies. Some may just use the images for screen savers. Most will use the photos for blogs and marketing products. 

For each published use, the user gives you credit and links back to your site. If enough people use your work, you could drive significant traffic and exposure your way. With enough raving fans, you have the seeds of a thriving business.

Trey Ratcliff's Stuck in Customs travel blog is probably the most celebrated example of this approach. Trey says when he decided to go with the Creative Commons strategy, traffic surged to 150,000 photo views per day, making it the most trafficked photography blog. His business has also grown to 10 people, and he reports that they are profitable. Trey credits all this success to his decision to give away his work for noncommercial applications, and use licensing deals for commercial uses to make money.

How can it work for you? Creative Commons uses four elements to construct a license: 

• Attribution - Every license has this component. If you use the work, you have to give credit. 
• Commercial use - Can you use the work to make money? Decide if you want images only used on editorial or educational outlets like blogs or schools, or if you don't mind someone selling your images on T-shirts, for instance.
• Derivatives - Can someone remix the work? Your images might inspire a designer to create something totally different. Are you okay with that?
• Share alike - If someone creates a derivative, do you want them to use the same sharing licenses you did? You can instruct derivatives to be shared freely, if that's how you prefer your work to be used.

These four elements can be combined to create six licensing alternatives. It might seem like that can easily get confusing, but Creative Commons has a cool Help Me Choose function on their website that walks you through the key questions and produces the right option. It even gives you the HTML to embed into your site.

As a creative, you should know that your work is protected the moment you create it. You don't need to do anything for it to be covered by copyright. If you want to be able to collect damages, you will need to register each creation with the U.S. Copyright office. Registering costs only $35, but you will have the confidence that you can be compensated for any unauthorized use.

How will you know if someone uses your photo? You can include a request that the user send you a link for your records, but nothing will require them to comply. You will be relying on their willingness to take the extra step. 

The best way to make sure you find your images is purchasing a service that tracks the images for you. They will embed a digital signature into your file. These services then scour the internet to find any uses of the photo. When you get a hit, you can check to see that the work is being used as you outlined.

You will have to decide if it is worth the time and expense to go looking for use or misuse of your images. Trey Ratcliff's approach is not to worry about piracy and let karma sort out the good and bad. 

Worked out pretty well for him. Freebies and pirates helped him create a great life as a photographer. Do you think it can work for you? How might you use Creative Commons?

By the way, if you are interested in copyright issues, check out my interview with IP attorney Phil Marcus.

In this webinar, we relived the high points and challenging moments of the Cherry Blossom Festival. I asked you to share your bests and busts, and here's what you said. Even better, many of you joined the conversation to talk about your experiences. 

Thanks for joining!

+ Six of my friends who are getting it right

You don't want to. That's the simple answer, but it's more complicated than that, isn't it? You have to work. Gotta earn a living. You have a family. Gotta be responsible. You have friends and other obligations. Gotta be balanced.

It's hard to find time for pictures.

And it's not because you don't want to… You would, if you had more time, right? Here's the ugly truth. You aren't going to find more time. You can make more time, if you really want to create art, grow your talent, or document the world around you. Try these strategies.

Schedule smaller chunks.

We often think we have to take off the entire afternoon or morning to do a photo walk. Imagining the task so big makes it easier to defer. How about a photo project where you use the first 15 minutes of your lunch break to photograph something. It can be even shorter than that. Diahn Ott did a Project 365 one year where she photographed her family every day at 8 am. Soon she built a fascinating catalog of faces and expressions. You could tell which days they had coffee before 8:00 am and after 8:00 am. She scheduled a small chunk of time every morning to get her photos in.

Build it into existing hobbies.

If you know you are spending time with another interest or hobby, try pairing the two. Photography doesn’t have to exist individually. I love the way Ali Drew does this. She is seriously into her Mini Cooper cars. I think she is even an officer in the Mini Cooper association. Yes, that kind of devotion. If you follow Ali’s blog or postings, you will find her Mini Cooper, Tigger, and those of her friends show up in a lot of her work. If the Mini Cooper club is out congregating with their cars, Ali is taking photos of them.  

Make it a daily project.

I harp on Project 365 because the public commitment to shoot daily can be an incredible motivation to find the time. Emily Carter never ceases to amaze me with this one. Emily already shoots more than most casual enthusiasts, but she has been disciplined since beginning her Project 365 exercise this year. I don’t think she’s missed a day yet. She’s photographing birds and barns, flowers and sometimes just the cracks in the sidewalk.  It looks like she is having a ball.

Make it a part of your family time.

You don’t have to choose between children and photography if you include them in your passion. In fact, today’s youth are growing up with cameras on phones and iPods. Photography is not a big deal for many of them. You might find them happy to create with you. Tony Mayo does this with his daughter. On last night’s webinar, he talked about photographing Cherry Blossoms while she held his flash off camera. Dad and daughter bonding time over creative lighting. Gotta love that. I saw them do the same thing on one of my night photography workshops. She had her own camera, but it was great to see them working on shots together.

Use it with your work or calling.

You can find so many ways to make your camera part of your business or calling. These days, it can be an easy way to help with your marketing and PR.

Connie Thompson is a pastor in Manassass, VA who uses photography as a part of her ministry. Her latest idea was to use a 100 Strangers approach to take photos of people in her community. Her church would then pray for the people in the images. Amen to that.

Take a camera everywhere.

It really doesn’t matter what kind. Take your camera phone. Take your point & shoot. Heck, take your DSLR. My good friend Steve Rosenbach shamed me with this one. We met for lunch one day and saw an interesting leaf. Steve whipped out his point & shoot and went to work. I looked on feeling silly that I didn’t have a camera with me. I never showed up again camera-less.

Permit yourself to take bad pictures.

We can overcome perfection paralysis by taking more bad photos. Many times we won’t even bother to take a picture because the conditions aren’t ideal. Who wants to take a bad photo? Local photography instructor Sam D’Amico once wrote a blog post that challenged us to take that shot anyway. It’s a cop out to wait until conditions are ideal. Take the crappy situation and challenge yourself to find something interesting. You might not end up with a bad photo if you are open to taking one. Does that make sense?

There you go. Six ways to make time for pictures. Your clock still has 24 hours in a day. Your minutes still tick away 60 seconds at a time. Our challenge is being more deliberate about making your pictures a priority. Make the time. If you really want to.

Are you struggling to find time to shoot? What strategies do you use to make time?

Free Photo Webinars - April 2013 focuses on your Cherry Blossom pictures. I’d love to see and share what you captured at the Tidal Basin or anywhere in the area.

I’m asking for two categories: your best and your bust.

Your Best

Did you nail your money shot? Do you have an image this year that you are proud to share? Let’s see it. I’d love to show off your best images with our audience. This is a great opportunity to help share your art with our community.

Your Bust

On the way to your best, you might have encountered a few challenges. If you had an image that didn’t work as you planned, and you’re not sure why, share that one as well. I’ll be happy to provide some insights on how you might have approached it differently.

You’ll notice that we are holding our webinar on the third Tuesday this month. With the slow blossoms this year, I wanted to make sure we all had an opportunity to photograph them at their peak.

April 16, 2013

7 pm, est