Yesterday, I was browsing photography apps for my iPhone when I stumbled on an amazing concept. A mobile model and property release form generator. Instead of keeping generic paper release forms in your camera bag, you can create one right on your smart phone and email it to both the model or property owner as well as yourself. The app is called Easy Release and is available for iOS (iPhone, iPad, & iPod) and Android based systems.

I was able to quickly set up Easy Release by adding my logo, business information, and my written signature in the app settings. The interface is very straight forward from there, and getting a release form put together shouldn’t take more than a few minutes on the spot. If you know who you will be shooting ahead of time you can set it up prior to the shoot and be ready to accept a signature and quickly push past the legal junk so you can get to creating. Signing a signature is not as bad as you think it would be either. It feels as natural as it could get without the use of a stylus or pen (which for some people might not be very natural at all, but for me it was fine). It also lets you assign a photo to the release so you can take a picture of an ID or maybe a reference shot of a person (which would be very handy if you are shooting a bunch of people in the same session). It’s very well thought out and could potentially save your butt so you don’t end up in a lawsuit like the poor musicians in the band Vampire Weekend.

Here is a shot of my daughter in a funhouse tunnel at the Coastal Carolina Fair in 2007:

Funhouse Tunnel Exit

Today I received my prints from Mpix for the 2010 Coastal Carolina Fair, and as usual, they did an outstanding job. There is something so satisfying about a company that does things consistently well, especially when it involves your livelihood! The FedEx guy commented to my wife that I must be starting a gallery with all of the prints I’ve been ordering this week. What can I say, I got excited when I saw the stand-outs that I had made for Kulture Klash and couldn’t wait to see more.

I mounted them myself on black foam core using mounting spray. I knew that I could potentially ruin a print with sticky fingerprints, so I added Mpix’s lustre coating to each one when I ordered them. Lo and behold, the first one I mounted got a little sticky, and I was able to easily wipe it clean without a trace of my gummy paw prints. I also hope to eventually frame these (framing is prohibited for this contest) and possibly sell them in the future, so I want them to survive the harsh conditions of the contest display. It’s a small price to pay for invisible protection. Mpix does do foam core mounting, but it is flush with the edge of the print, and I wanted a one inch border to avoid fingerprints by whomever handles them at the fair. Besides, buying a sheet of foam core from the store and mounting it yourself is way cheaper in the long run when you’re doing multiple prints.

Who’s your favorite printer and why? Let me know in the comments.