To protect themselves and their subject, photographers that shoot people (or property) commercially should use model releases.  A model release is, essentially, a contract stating that the parties photographed consent to having their image used by someone else for profit or promotion.  When you're in a studio environment, it's not a big deal -- the photographer should have a few ready-made forms stashed with his equipment.

When you're out on location, however, having to deal with papers and pens and duplicates can be a right pain in the butt, especially in the case of an impromptu shoot.  You know the kind: you have your camera, catch an awesome moment that you know would be great for a job you've got, but you have no releases on you.

Do you skip on the shot?  Do you take it, ask for an e-mail address, and hope the subject doesn't think you're a stalker?  Or do you make your image surreptitiously, and hope and pray that you don't get sued?

Well, for iPhone users, Application Gap has come up with a handy solution called Easy Release.  It takes care of all the dirty work for you, and since it's on your phone, it's probably always with you.

At $10, it's not cheap.  And while it's very thorough, I think that the "easy" part of the name is a bit of a stretch -- setting up a complete release can be a bit of a time consuming process.  Much of it is optional, though, so at least you can skip through less important details.

You set it up with your name, your contact e-mail address, and your signature.  Then, to create a release, it walks you through all the steps necessary to get the information you need from the model or property owner, including name, location, date of birth, contact info, a photo for identification purposes, and their signature.

The signature part is neat -- just turn the phone to its landscape orientation, and sign it with the tip of your finger.  Easy!

When it's all done, the app creates a PDF that includes all the captured information, and e-mails it out.  In your e-mail application, it's then really easy to set up a filter that will file away these incoming releases for storage.

As part of a release management system, Easy Release adds a lot of streamlining to data collection and management.  It's not inexpensive for an iPhone app, but as a business expense, $10 is cheaper than the paper, toner, folder, pens, and filing accessories you'd otherwise need to have on hand.  I'd like to see a way to set up a shoot with multiple models to avoid having to re-enter a lot of the preliminary data over and over again, but for now you can just leave that out, get in all the models' info straight away, and then go back and enter it after the fact.  It'll be tedious, but it's possible.

Easy Release by Application Gap is available now for $9.99 in the iTunes App Store.

On Saturday, I drove out to the Museum of Civilization in Hull, Quebec to meet up with Saad and Caitlyn of MeriJaan Photography. They’re a photography team, specializing primarily in weddings, with whom I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate.

Our first meeting, of course, was just a meet-and-greet-and-shoot-and-share type of affair, and we did exactly that. It also gave me a chance to put some new gear through its paces in a variety of settings and lighting conditions. This is, of course, very important, as you never want to learn how to use your gear on a client’s time. A selection of photos from the day is available here.