Paul Lester Photo

Fire in the sky

…In addition, we will not copy a photograph that appears to have been taken by a professional photographer or studio, even if it is not marked with any sort of copyright, unless we are presented with a signed Copyright Release from the photographer or studio.

When I visited my friend Richard back in May we stopped at Wal-Mart to get a few prints made. While there, a young lady was trying to get copies made of a picture that her dad had taken of her for her high school graduation. Admittedly, the photos looked really nice and ‘professionally’ done.

This young lady had the images on a CD, but she brought some print copies with her for color matching, I assume. Anyway, she wanted to insert her CD to make the prints, however, a Wal-Mart employee was giving her a hassle about copyrighted images saying that the pictures that she was about to print looked professional and that they wouldn’t allow her to print/purchase the prints. After a short argument, the employee finally relented. After all, she did have the files and her dad had taken the pictures. They wanted her to have a copyright release form. Mind you, anyone can make this form for themselves, bring it to Wal-Mart and get anything made. I would guess that the only reason to have this form would be to eliminate any copyright infringement liability, not necessarily to protect the photographer.

Fast forward to an incident Richard, my friend, experienced the other day where a man was trying to scan a ‘professional’ looking picture. The Wal-Mart employees wouldn’t allow him to do it. It would seem that, according to Wal-mart, only ‘professionals’ have a copyright.

I applaud Wal-Mart’s attempts to protect photographer’s rights, even though it is a bit misguided, giving too much latitude to their employees to interpret whether or not a photo has a copyright. All photos have a copyright to the original owner unless intentionally signed away. As soon as you take the picture, you have a copyright. It’s just plain silly to assume that only professional ‘looking’ prints have a copyright. Naturally, this is a knee-jerk reaction to the 1999 lawsuit against KMart, filed by the Professional Photographers of America, or PPA. The PPA won a $100,000 settlement.

This is a slippery slope, I think. For example, should I want to have some pictures printed at Wal-Mart, for some reason, if I provide Wal-Mart with a CD of images that I want to print, even if I own them, they are within their rights to not print the images if they appear professional. I’d have to take my business elsewhere. Even though the policy deals with copying/scanning of copyrighted materials, it would appear that the employees have interpreted this as being anything that looks professional.

Perhaps Wal-Mart should get out of the picture printing business, except for printing unexposed rolls of film. That might be safer for them. Perhaps a better understanding of the copyright law is required. Perhaps they should have expert legal counsel running the photo lab! Perhaps…

Meaning?

…He said he was drawn more by the rope than the boat. While he agreed that the boat conveyed a strong message of longing toward the mysterious, “unknown” horizon, he suggested that the rope injects a deeper melancholy by reminding the viewer that even if the boat were seaworthy (which it may not be), the rope might still prevent a traveler from using it to escape. The two combined – dilapidated boat & rope – were enough to elicit very strong memories of his “longing for escape from entrapment” in his youth.

The above quote came from the blog, Tao of Photography. Andy, the blog’s author, was talking about an exhibit that he had a book store and about a particular comment that one of the viewers, who happened to be a local psychiatrist made about a particular image. You can see the image if you click on the link.

Anyway, it got me to thinking about various interpretations of my images that have come along upon showing them to someone. Sometimes I take pictures of pretty things, sometimes abstract things, sometimes people, other times landscapes, and yet other times landscapes with people, as in the above shot. Personally, I love to see lots and lots of sky in a picture, giving the picture a since of great height, for whatever reason. I guess that I’ve always been fascinated by clouds and space, which is why most of pictures seem to be taken vertically.

Meaning, I guess, depends on the mood or experiences of the viewer as to their interpretation, similar to what one might see in a Rorschach ink blot test. One might view the above picture as a stormy day, another as lonely, and yet another a beautiful morning walk. Who knows how it will be viewed. It kind of reminds me of the high school English literature classes where we had to decide what the writer of a story or poem meant. There’s just no way to do it. Meaning, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. An image can have broad appeal, but I would imagine that not many of those that it appeals to will have the same interpretation of the image. Interesting, indeed!

Backups! Very important!!!

I guess that it was bound to happen, eventually. I’ve seen it happen to others, but it was my first experience. “Honestly! This has never happened to me before!!!”. I was shooting pictures of Tony’s basketball game on Friday evening. Things were going well for both the team and myself. They were beating their opponent, South Mecklenburg High School, by a healthy margin, and I was getting some decent shots. Suddenly, my camera started to respond slowly when I pressed the playback button to ‘chimp’ at a few shots. I thought nothing of it at the time.

I continued to shoot and things continued to go well. The team pulled further ahead and I accumulated more photos. Suddenly, and cannot say ‘without warning’, because in retrospect, I did have warning, I got a message on my camera that said: “This card cannot be used!”. Uh, oh!!! I quickly went into my bag, grabbed another CF card, swapped, and was back in business in about 20 seconds. Shooting continues!

I kept shooting. Tony kept shooting.

The 4 GB card is ‘old’ technology. When I got my camera, some 20 months ago, there was no such thing as a 4 GB CF card. 2 GB was the largest, however, Hitachi made a 4 GB micro-drive, which holds 4 GB of data but is not flash memory. It is actually a micro hard drive. Therefore, it has moving parts and is subject to failure. It gave a good run. I used it almost exclusively for all of my sports shooting. I think that I’ll retire it and put it out to pasture now. “Fool me once, shame on you! Fool me twice, shame on me!”. Looks like I’ll have to get another 4 GB card; this time it won’t have to be a micro-drive!

Earlier in the evening I had considered taking only my camera and one CF card with me. I’m glad that I didn’t. I learned a valuable lesson about being prepared, that’s for sure! In the end, our team won by a healthy margin and I was able to recover all of the pictures off of the other card. I hope that cards don’t fail frequently, but just in case they do, I’ll keep backups and software on my laptop and desktop that can recover files from corrupted cards! I suggest that you do the same!

Any suggestions for CF cards that are both reasonably priced and provide good performance? Is there really a big difference between a 133x and a 300x? Thanks!

My boys
I like to read a lot. Most times I read fiction. Sometimes spiritual books. Rarely, anymore, do I read technical books. I’ve been reading a fiction book called ‘Next’, by Michael Crichton. The story is about genetic experimentation, specifically transgenic work. Transgenic work is taking the genes from one species and injecting them into another. In the book, for example, they have injected a human gene into a parrot. The parrot is now self-aware and not only mimics speech, but can reason as well. I see photography heading this way. No longer is the natural photograph appreciated, it has to be more and more stimulating to even get a look. Eye candy! More to this later.

I guess that I’m in one of those mid-life things. No, not a crisis, but a deep desire for a gradual career change. I’ve had a glorious run with software development and have throughly enjoyed it; however, I think that it is time for a change.

Within about 2 years, our younger son, Tony, will be headed off to college. Again, we will downsize and our income requirements will be less … we hope. By that time, we will have one who will have graduated college and one just entering. Changing careers and ‘downsizing’ in money, at least temporarily, I hope, will then be an option. I’ve started investigating the ‘income’ side of photography.

I’m pretty familiar with the technical and aesthetic side of photography, I think; however, the business side is somewhat mysterious. I decided to sign up for a course at BetterPhoto, called Making Money with your Photography. The course is taught by Jim Zuckerman. You can see some of his work here. I’m on week one of an eight week course. The topics for the first week have to do with showing / submitting your work.

One of the axioms stated early on in this course was that “Color sells!”. People want to see bold, daring color. Personally, I’m not into the hyped up, super reality color shots, as seen on most calendars and in travel magazines, etc. It’s just not my thing, so perhaps that area is not for me. “That area” being selling images to magazines and calendar companies, etc. In looking a some of Jim’s work, it is very nice! Some of it is amazing; however, a lot of them are composites of multiple scenes, transgenic! That said, this is the new ‘reality’. This is what art buyers and editors want to see. I would assume, this is what the public demands.

My heart, I believe, is still with the idea of teaching, especially beginners. I love to see that light come on. If I never get published, it’s fine. I also am thinking that a goal for next year might be to participate in an art show or two, just to get the experience. Craig Tanner told me that it is a humbling experience to have someone critique your artwork right in front of you as if you are not even there!

Anyway, still trying to find a niche. I think that the course will be helpful and enlightening. I may even take a Photoshop course to increase my skill there. I’ll keep you informed.