The SAA Photo Metadata Project is set to resume educating photographic professionals with more getMETAsmart events. All getMETAsmart events, which are designed to teach imaging professionals how to use metadata, are free to those who register in advance at www.photometadata.org. All who attend can also register for a free raffle featuring valuable professional software and services from Adobe, Microsoft, Camera Bits, Photoshelter, and now, liveBooks. The Chicago event held on 24 September 2009 at Prairie Production at 1314 W. Randolph Street, will fit between the American Society of Picture Professionals’ Midwest education day and an evening presentation by Judy Herrmann of the American Society of Media Photographers. While those events require an admission fee, the getMETAsmart seminar will be free to all registrants. Then, David Riecks will travel to Atlanta on Saturday, 10 October, to share the metadata message with Southeast professionals at Big Studio, 881 W. Marietta Street N.W.

Press Release

Stock Artists Alliance Photo Metadata Events Set for Chicago on Sept. 24, Atlanta on Oct. 10

Summer is over for millions of students across the country, and the SAA Photo Metadata Project is set to resume educating photographic professionals with more getMETAsmart events. In Chicago, starting at 2:30 on Thursday, Sept. 24, at Prairie Production, metadata guru David Riecks will splice his three-hour program between events set for ASPP and ASMP. In Atlanta, Riecks will present SAA’s informational seminar and tutorials at Big Studio, starting at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 10.

All getMETAsmart events are free to interested imaging professionals who register in advance at www.photometadata.org. All who attend can also register for a free raffle featuring valuable professional software and services from Adobe, Microsoft, Camera Bits, Photoshelter, and now, liveBooks.

The Chicago event at Prairie Production at 1314 W. Randolph Street, will fit between the American Society of Picture Professionals’ Midwest education day and an evening presentation by Judy Herrmann of the American Society of Media Photographers. While those events require an admission fee, the getMETAsmart seminar will be free to all registrants, whether they attend the ASPP seminars, ASMP’s presentation, both or neither.

David Riecks will travel to Atlanta on Saturday, Oct. 10, to share the metadata message with Southeast professionals at Big Studio, 881 W. Marietta Street N.W. This promises to be a good gathering of photographers, editors, archivists and image users from around the Peach State and the Southeast. Your free admission includes refreshments and a chance to win a copy of Adobe Photoshop, Camera Bits Photo Mechanic, Microsoft Expression Media, or web services from Photoshelter and liveBooks.

800 and counting educated

During the late spring, nearly 800 picture professionals got METAsmart at events across the country. Positive reviews abound. One commenter in Seattle said, “The speakers did a great job of catering to the full spectrum of audience experience/knowledge—not easily done!” New York’s Susan Shamper described the evening as “such an impressively organized seminar presented by both well informed, inspiring and entertaining presenters. Well done!”

Many others said they were surprised both at how much metadata could help their businesses and how interesting several hours of metadata discussions could be.

Audiences in Dallas, San Antonio, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Washington learned how to use metadata to help protect copyrights, make money licensing photography, smooth workflows, track image use, find images they need and find them again. In addition to sessions by metadata-guru David Riecks about metadata basics, those who attended in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Washington also learned some of the newest techniques for search-engine optimization during presentations sponsored by Photoshelter.

Learn more and register online at www.PhotoMetadata.org

Thousands more have visited our growing website, PhotoMetadata.org, a tool intended as a resource the industry will value for years. 

A glossary and “Field Guide” help you understand how to navigate the specific and evolving language of terms associated with image origins, rights and descriptions. Learn about the challenges of protecting, licensing and archiving digital photos. Learn how using standardized metadata can help. Find out what’s new in the world of metadata. Our extensive guides to metadata standards and best practices pair with links to other resources to help you become METAsmart.

New pages and information continue to grow and we’ll soon have tutorials to help you use leading software tools - from Adobe, Camera Bits and Microsoft - to quickly embed and leverage descriptive metadata in your digital files.

The Meta Mission

Working under an award from the Library of Congress with added support from project partners Adobe, Microsoft, Camera Bits, Photoshelter, PicScout and the IPTC, SAA is on a mission to promote industrywide use of standard photo metadata in every digital image file. 

Our goal: Help all photographers - and everyone working with digital images - become METAsmart. Photographers need to embed metadata in their images, while stock distributors, users, archivists and software developers need to ensure this information is preserved - and read correctly - as files are processed, copied, licensed, published online, reproduced and archived. No matter how METAsmart you think you are, we can teach you better metadata practices to help your business - and protect your legacy. Our MetaSurvey showed too few images on the web have identifying metadata.

Look soon for information about our final fall metadata event. These evening events - including receptions - are free, but registration is limited. To learn more and - once new events are announced - reserve a place, please go to www.photometadata.org. 

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About Stock Artists Alliance:

SAA is the only trade association focused on the business of stock photography. SAA supports its membership with exclusive benefits to enable and enhance their stock businesses. SAA speaks up for the interests of stock artists with a clear and powerful voice in the licensing industry. The heart of SAA’s mission is education and advocacy concerning core issues, such as the need to better protect and promote licensing through the use of standardized metadata. Learn more at www.stockartistsalliance.org

About the Digital Preservation Program at the U.S. Library of Congress:

The mission of the Library’s Digital Preservation Program is to develop a national strategy to collect, archive and preserve burgeoning digital content. The Library awarded SAA a partnership to join its preservation network of more than 130 partners from across the nation to tackle the challenge. Learn more at www.photometadata.org/About-Library-of-Congress-Partnership

About our Project Partners:

A diverse group of partners support SAA’s Photo Metadata Project, warranting thanks not only from us but from the entire imaging industry. Our partners committed to the usability and preservation of digital images include: Adobe, Microsoft, Camera Bits, Photoshelter, PicScout, the IPTC and liveBooks. Learn more at www.photometadata.org/About-Project-Partners

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