28 October 2011

**Why are photographers expected to give away their work?

Yesterday, I received the following email:

hello, i'm french and i'm an artist.
I love this foto and i would like to peint it if you give me your agreament.
After, this painting will be sold . (ce tableau sera à vendre).
I wait your answer et i hope you will agree
.

I responded thus : The fee for using this photograph as a subject of your painting is 50 euros. If it becomes a commercial proposition (such as prints for commercial usage), my fee would be 10% of the selling price of the print. I would require an annual audit of sales.

The response: I thank you for having answered me.
But I shall not thus use your photo


Sigh. When I am approached by "artists" wishing to use my work as a basis of their paintings, I always respond with a reasonable fee but always place a condition upon the use that if it should become a commercial proposition, then an additional percentage is incurred. If they are making money out of my work, I do not see why I should not also! I always think of Alberto Korda, the Cuban photographer who received very little for his famous iconic image of Che Guevara, mainly because Castro did not recognise the Berne Convention.

I can only recall one painter, based in the US, who happily paid my fee for painting several of my images. If only there were more like her...!

18 October 2011

**Article by Paul Wallbank regarding copyright on websites

A handy and informative article by Paul Wallbank of PC Rescue (click on link above) advising website owners about avoiding copyright infringement. Long overdue and thank you Paul.

14 October 2011

**Australia's shame*

Recently, a letter of mine was published in the Sydney Morning Herald regarding the arrest in Bali of a silly 14 year old boy who was found with a small amount of cannabis on him. The usual thing that happens to tourists in Bali. Someone offers you a good deal on some dope. Wisely, you decline because you just know that around the corner are the police just waiting to arrest a tourist on a drugs charge. The 14 year old was on holiday with his folks and stupidly fell for the sting. My letter to the Herald was thus:

What a heartwarming response from the Federal Government on the plight of the 14 year old boy in jail in Bali. But what a shame that is not shared with the many 14 year old asylum seekers in detention whose only crime was to get on a boat to escape persecution in their homeland.

The sight of politicians falling over themselves to come to the assistance of a teenager arrested by Indonesia was a tad sickening and smacked of populism (which is not foreign to this Labor Federal Government, nor of the Coalition Government before them). They care little for the many 14 year olds who are in manditory detention because they arrived by boat, rather than by plane.

After Topaz

Using Topaz Spicify, the image has been enhanced in both colour and "pop". This may be a tad OTT but when printed out, it looks rather good (even if I say so myself!!).

Elderly gents

Image enhancing filters

I have recently been experimenting with different filters for post processing images. Topaz has been one of them. Using the adjust filter, one can change rather dramatically an image which may (or may not) need enhancing. Purists argue that one should not enhance or change an image but in this era, we are bombarded with enhanced movies so it seems a natural progression to enhance still images. The pic directly above is the original image (shot RAW and converted using Adobe Camera RAW).

Rather boring shot of Sydney Harbour

I am going to show how a somewhat boring shot of Sydney Harbour (if there ever could be one!) can be turned into something a little more spectacular. Below is the original shot (shot in RAW format with my Canon 5D) and taken off the back of the Manly ferry.

Sydney Harbour

Sydney Harbour
Rather boring shot of Sydney Harbour

Conversion

Using Adobe Camera Raw ("ACR"), I converted the raw image with parameters: Blacks 7, brightness +31, Contrast +61, Clarity +77, Vibrance +7, Saturation 72 and a bit of Curves which brought me to the below image.

Harbour

Harbour

Flood filter conversion

I then produced a "reflection" using Flaming Pear flood filter. For those unfamiliar with this filter, it gives the image a perception of a reflection (poetical!) and I see it often in publications and I find myself examining ALL images with reflections to see if the photographer had used this very handy filter. I have details of the conversion if anyone is interested but to post it would be a tad boring. Flaming pair flood filters can be found here

Reflection

Reflection
Sydney Harbour reflection using flood filter

Sea of Hats

I was on my lunch hour when I was strolling around The Rocks area of Sydney when I saw a group of private schoolgirls on an excursion. As soon as I saw their hats, I knew that there was a good opportunity to get a good snap. As luck would have it, they started to cross the street to where I was standing. I knew in my head the image I was looking for and I had to be above them. With an enormous amount of good fortune, a ramp up to a shop in this old area of Sydney was a few metres away. I raced up the ramp and shot this image. It was taken with my Canon 70-200 f/4L at f/5.6 which gave me a shallow depth of field leaving the centre hat in sharp focus and the rest of the hats out of focus. I submitted this image in late 2005 to the Black and White Spider Awards and it won Outstanding Achievement - People and also won me the Photographer of the Year 2005 - amateur. It really is nice to get recognition of one's work and even though I am now a professional, it still gives me a warm feeling when I look at my certificate!

Sulphur crested cockatoo in flight

This is an image on which I have added a "flood" filter. It is quite effective and quite a nice shot in any event. Flood filters can be found here and they are worth every cent. There is always a debate regarding "Photoshopping" images but as long as one is honest about the origin and digital changes to the image, I think its legimate. The original image, taken in our garden, of the cockatoo actually landing on the lawn, had a piece of its left hand side wing missing so I "replaced" it in Photoshop CS4. Cockatoos actually dislike water and when they start attacking the timber balustrades on our verandah, all I have to do is get out the spray bottle and walk towards them. They are endearing creatures, very intelligent but are enormously destructive. They are very long lived (up to 80 years) so don't even think of buying one unless you plan to outlive it and put up with the high decibels of squawking! I really hate seeing them in cages and they must long to be free when they see a large flock passing by.

Surfing the storm

Late one afternoon, I was snapping at Avalon Beach, Sydney, when a storm approached. This did not stop a late surfer. This image is available as a print via my RedBubble site. Click on image which will take you to the print site.

Sydney Opera House abstract

An abstract look at the famous icon. It is very difficult to take any pics of the Opera House as everyone and their brother has done it before. For this particular image, I used Optikvervlabs filter.

Leopard seal

I took this shot of a leopard seal exhaling bubbles at Taronga Zoo in Sydney. This is, apparently, one of the few leopard seals in captivity. Apparently it was found injured awhile back and is happy in its huge enclosure at the Zoo along with its mate. Through a stock library, this image is to appear as a full page in a textbook.



Alice

Alice
A portrait of an elderly lady
This is one of my favourite images of Alice, an elderly aboriginal lady who sadly is now deceased. I would occasionally see her at Circular Quay in Sydney and she would often smile at me. I used a Dragan filter to bring out more texture to the image. I am often asked if I have ever been challenged when photographing candid subjects. Only on one occasion, I was asked not to take a photograph of a female street performer which was odd as that is where they often make their money. So, of course, I acceded to her wishes. Many buskers or street performers expect payment for taking their photograph and its something I always do as its their living, as taking photographs is mine. One of my most popular galleries on my website is one of Sydney Aborigines and I have many kind comments on my work. I did have one person, a Sydney academic, who actually called me a thief as she was under the erroneous impression that I was selling images of these colourful folk without payment which in fact is not true. I have model releases from many and I have made subsequent payments to them.




The smoker

The smoker
An elderly man puffs on a cigarette

Mudda Mudda

Mudda Mudda
My favourite subject
Mudda Mudda (aka Cedric) is an aboriginal busker who is often found at Circular Quay, in Sydney, accompanying other aboriginal buskers. He has such a great face and this image won me a UK award last year for traditional portraiture here