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There are two phone apps I’ve come to depend on as a professional travel and tourism photographer – The Easy Release – Model Release App and the Sun Seeker App (above).
Both cost under $5 and have made my life so much easier.
As I wrote some time ago, I have two international photo libraries representing my work, both of which require detailed, signed model releases to accompany any photographs featuring people (in the old days of film, you just needed a signature on the back of a business card. Now it takes a page of legalese no one can fathom to sign away your life). Printed releases have been a nightmare for me with having to attach each photo to a dog-eared document excavated from the deepest recesses of my camera bag before compiling them in a digital format to parcel and send away. But, with the Easy Release, you can open the app, start the process and hand your phone to the model to have them do it all – details, selfie, and signature (using finger) – before pressing the send button and having a PDF copy of the contract sent to both you and them for your records. What a Godsend!
I had the Sun Seeker App sitting on my I-Phone for a couple of months before I recognised its value on the shoot I just did in Victoria where, for the life of me, I couldn’t work out where the sun was going down. There was daylight saving thrown in, big trees and long shadows to consider and a sun that chose to set and rise everywhere but where I expected it to. The Sun Seeker App’s GPS software, however, told me exactly where the sun would be at any hour of the day, what time it rose and set and, somewhat remarkably, it even had a 3D function to better determine how the features in front of me would be effected by the sunlight.
Both just amazing – and worth baring in mind the next time you’re heading out on a shoot.
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