The Atlanta Town Hall panel was the only one to feature a practicing attorney and photographer, Carolyn Wright, which made for some interesting conversations regarding intellectual property. Business-guru, John Harrington, joined Rich Wakefield, Bryan Meltz, David Walter Banks, Bill Frakes and Meagan Ziegler-Haynes in a discussion moderated by yours truly.

We have just wrapped up our Town Halls here in LA (ok, ok, it was Orange County), and we're tired, but really jazzed at the opportunity to meet so many of you in person. The concerns that you aired changed from city to city, and reinforced for me the need to get out and talk to people as often as possible. So thanks for coming out and listening to us for an afternoon.

We're going to keep pumping out the videos over the next few weeks, as I think the information that can be gleaned from each speaker and panel is as diverse as the venues we visited. I hope you have a chance to check them all out. And definitely tell us what you thought of the Town Halls in general. We would love to bring the concept to other towns when we can, so any feedback would be really helpful in shaping the program into something useful for you.

We have a lot of speakers that have graciously consented to participate in our Town Halls, but only one brought his own DJ. I first met Chase Jarvis at the Microsoft Pro Photo Summit a few years ago, and he was one entertaining dude. Of course, it doesn't hurt that he's a Nikon and Hasselblad Master at the tender age of 35.

But lest you think that Chase is just yucking it up for laughs and self-promotion, you might change your mind when you find out that he gave $1000 to someone in the audience when they revealed their plans for helping the photo community. And even more significantly, he's involved in the largest copyright infringement case ever -- having turned down a $400k settlement on principle that it would screw photographers down the road.

So enjoy the ninjas, guns, and group photo with his Apple iPhone but learn something too. Turn that frown upside down!

LiveBooks founder, Michael Costuros, introduces photo editor Catherine Talese, whose diverse career has spanned magazines like GQ, Quest and Absolute. This was a pretty interesting perspective from the photo buyer-side that photographers don't hear often enough. She's also has a very in-depth appreciation for the history of photography and the greats that have preceded the current generation of photographers.

I've been pleasantly surprised at the number of editors that say they like to get postcards and pin them up on their wall for inspiration, and see high-quality prints. There's definitely something to be said about the tactile experience of viewing photography, as oxymoronic as it sounds.

And it was totally inspirational that she took time in her career to do a "passion project" where writers and photographers donated their work for art's sake. This seems to be one cause where it's cool to give away your work for free!

Here's the first video that we've produced (and when I say "we," I mean "Mike") from the New York Town Hall. It's a fantastic panel discussion between Kareem Black, Chase Jarvis, Jennifer Miller, Landon Nordeman, George Pitts, and Catherine Talese that covers issues of copyright, marketing, Getty, and other topics related to the business of photography.

We are just back from Atlanta and Chicago where we had a great time with our speakers and you! In Atlanta, I had a chance to grab dinner with our good friends at EZ Prints the night before the event. And of course, our speakers Bill Frakes, John Harrington, Jennifer Kilberg, Bryan Meltz, Rich Wakefield, Carolyn Wright, and our very own Meagan Ziegler-Haynes. Betsy Reid from SAA added a lot of color to the discussion, and Dr. Bob Carey brought a whole bunch of students from North Carolina for the day.

The Chicago event was held at the Alhambra Palace, this totally crazy cool venue in the warehouse district near Harpo Productions. Todd Baxter, Brittney Blair, Kevin McConkey, Liz Miller-Gershfeld, Brian Ulrich, and Katrina Wittcamp led a really lively discussion that covered issues of SEO, UI design, and breaking into the business.

It's really interesting to see how the different geographies produce different sets of questions and concerns, and in that respect the videos that we'll be throwing up have unique content that we think will be of interest to everyone.

Wow! We were pleasantly surprised to see over 500 of you show up for the kick-off Town Hall in New York's The Fillmore (aka Irving Plaza). Despite the freezing cold air conditioning, the event could only be described as a success. Chase Jarvis turned a whole bunch of frowns upside down (with his personal DJ, no less), Catherine Talese had some very interesting insight from the photo buyer side with some killer images, and our incredible panel provided a great mix of insight and humor. George Pitts is one cool dude, Roy Hsu is a fountain of information, and I can't believe Kareem Black did a promo piece around town last year that read "Kareem Black to wed Lindsay Lohan." Brilliant. A big thanks also to fellow Eddie Adams alum, Landon Nordeman, and speaker-wrangler/super editor Jen Miller!

Of course, the big news was Grover's announcement of The PhotoShelter Collection, an open, commercial stock image marketplace for anyone who wants to sell images to professional image buyers. If you haven't already gotten the news, check out these sources!

PopPhoto.com
The Strobist
Stock Photo Talk
Stock Asylum

If you haven't already registered for the rest of our free Town Halls, do it now!

PS Who was the dude in the front row with his shoes off and feet up on a chair?!?!?

I was saddened to see this story on the nytimes site about a photographer in Shanksville, PA, the site of the United 93 crash on September 11. Valencia McClatchey's photo was the only one in this rural part of PA that showed any semblance of the crash within the first few minutes, and since she released it to the media, she has been barraged by conspiracists regarding its authenticity and veracity.

Although I encountered nothing of the same volume, I did receive some emails from people claiming that the NIST had deceptively photoshopped the images I submitted to them to obfuscate the facts regarding the South Tower's collapse.

Believe me. There was no deception. There was no conspiracy. There were no sequence of detonations characteristic of a controlled explosion. There was only the lowest noise I've heard in my life when the tower came down. So the armchair conspiracists can save their fanciful tales for Area 51, and let the rest of us observe the solemn day in silence.