PIX Musings (blog)

My family and others I know are busy.  Very busy.  Often we are too busy to stop and enjoy life.  Often random events come along that interupt what we are busy at.

We call that a “time suck.”

Certainly there are ways to prioritize and organize your life.  For example, I’m currently (Fall 2008) reading a book called “Getting Things Done” which apparently has a whole culture around it.  http://www.davidco.com/

Recently on the radio I heard about “LivePerson.com“  Since I was in the car at the time, I used my cellphone and called my Jott service.  Using Jott, I had dictated a short note to check into LivePerson.com, and send it to myself.  The service transcribes my message (using a real person, I think) and emails me either the message or a link to the message (this time I got a link).  Since many factors may make an accurate text transcription hit-or-miss, a recording of your audio is usally available.

LivePerson.com looks like it may be useful similar to eLance.com.  eLance lets you find electronic freelancers to bid on a project or work that you have.  You get to make the final selection.  I have yet to try it, but have seen Tweets from people that have, with mixed results.  Like hiring an employee or going to a new ’store’, you don’t always get the results you expect.  Works that way with pancake making too.

I’ve learned an expensive lesson. The District Attorney (DA) won’t help you with a bounced check unless certain criteria are met, including getting an ID from the person who’s wrote the check.

Santa Clara County, as well as many other jurisdictions, operates “Bad Check Restitution Program.”

http://www.checkprogram.com/static_websites/santaclaracounty/

From this site you can get the forms to file a “Crime Report” so that the DA can step in and investigate.

There are many exclusions that will prevent the DA from helping you, including:

Post Dated checks

Stop Payment issued

Identity of check writer is unknown

DA’s website: http://santaclara-da.org/portal/site/da/

Of course just because the DA won’t pursue rubber checks as a crime, that doesn’t mean that you can’t go to Small Claims court. A bounced check is worth up to three times it’s face amount in damages.

http://www.4collectionsolutions.com/nsf_check_laws.html

How should I present the “tear sheet” copies of my images that appear in printed materials?

PRINTED PORTFOLIO

Should I tear out the pages of magazines and place them in my portfolio book?  Or maybe scan them and print them onto photo paper?

Online Portfolio

For online examples, I probably have no choice but to scan the original (unless the publisher provides PDF copies, JPEG, etc.)

What do you think?

Six of my photos were published in the Summer 2008 edition of “Belly Dance, a Raqs Sharqi Magazine.”

Well, actually there is a dispute about one image;  it is credited to another photographer, but since he was stationed at a different building (same venu) that day, and it does look like one I submitted, I’m pretty sure this was just an attribution error by the publisher.

http://bellydancemag.com/

This is a quarterly magazine, and my images have appreared in many previous editions; this is the first edition to be distributed widely at retail, i.e. Barns and Noble.  It previously had limited availability in specialty shops and via subscription.

It is common to be confused about the proper usage of images.  Because it is easy to copy photos, drawings, and other graphic files off the Internet for re-use doesn’t mean that this is proper or allowed.  In fact, it could even lead to the user being responsible for hefty fees and even fines.

Creative Commons was organized to help us sort through these challenges.

In general, under current copyright laws in the US, the copyright belongs to the ‘creator.’  So for photos, I consider this to be the person who pushed the button to make the exposure.

If you are the subject of a photo, that does not mean you own the ‘rights’ to your own image.  Sorry to tell you that.  At the same time, this does not allow the copyright owner to sell your image to anyone.  If used for commercial purposes (to sell another product) then permission would be needed for any recognizable person in the photo.  This is most commonly supported by a signed “Model Release.”

_MG_1533

Originally uploaded by DRS_Photo

I know many photographers hate taking pictures of kids and babies.

I had a wonderful photoshoot recently with an 18-month old girl. Even though there was pressure to ‘get the shot’, the shoot was pretty relaxed, my ‘model’ was in a good mood, even if she wasn’t always cooperative.

I had shot her before, so there wasn’t any anxiety on the set. I’ve also heard that some photographers don’t want the parents nearby interfering. First, a parent should ALWAYS be onset or nearby with a minor, and second, it really helped. The mom was there, and could keep the youngster occupied, and judged how the mood was.

I look forward to a return visit by this young girl.

CRW_8595

Originally uploaded by DRS_Photo

I’m making progress. Now I’ve learned to blog from within FLICKR. This now means I need to upload more current images to FLICKR.

Well, after being a ‘member’ of the Flickr website for a long time, I’m reading about features and uses of Flickr that I just have not paid attention to.

Now I’d like to be able to upload to Flickr easily from Adobe’s Lightroom.

Creative Commons

I’m learning more about the Creative Commons copyright licensing… good stuff at their website:

http://creativecommons.org/

Recently the Copyright office has begun accepting electronic submissions, at a lower cost.

Like anything new, the HOW of doing this is a little confusing.  In general, this looks like a positive development.

Zazzel  ( http://www.zazzle.com/ ) seems to be a variation of CafePress.  Put images on things; sell things.  But I’ll come back to it to check out what it offers.

There are so many interesting photo related links… every once in awhile I’ll get hooked into a whole new world of related sites and activities.