I know there are some US folk who read my blog and I am addressing this post to those who voted for Donald Trump...WTF were you thinking? Do you really thing this predatory groper with failed business interests and who has not paid any income tax for years will REALLY do anything for you or more importantly, your country? Why are you guys so gullible and believe the rhetoric of a TV reality "star" whose only interests are feathering his own nest and the fortunes of his fellow Republican leaders. All of those males who voted for Trump...can you actually look your daughters and wives in the eye and acknowledge that you actually voted for this person who thinks its fine to grope them in "the pussy" and all those females who voted for this deviant, can you do the same with your daughters?
My friend and lawyer in the US sums it up perfectly in her email response to me after I offered her our home in Sydney should she wish to jump ship - "There is such a vein of hatefulness here that
it’s shocking. Anti-LGBT, anti-woman, anti-muslim/non-Christian,
anti-non-white… it’s like people here are forgetting that we fought a world war
to defeat a society based on the same basic principles. " It is the last sentence in her email which struck a chord. We Australians battled Fascism for six years (and the Americans joined us a tad late ...but there you go) and now you have one who espouses such beliefs in the White House. Some might say that its not the business of non-Americans but the POTUS has always been the leader of the free world and now you have inflicted this serial groper on the rest of the world. Well done.
Through Google Search by Image, I found an interesting website which creates an online presentation software including virtual gallery of one's images. Here is a link to my Emaze Virtual gallery
The link does not work on iPads, iPhones or Androids but I am sure there is an app that will.
Its an interesting concept and one which photographers could use to present one's work in a different fashion.
I must say that I am very impressed with Imagerights a US based company which pursues infringers on behalf of photographers. I joined them about six months ago with little expectation but they, and their various international law firms who do the actual pursuing, have done very well for me. While I still use Leslie Burns of Burns the Attorney (and previously of Photo Attorney) for US registered images where the infringer is US based, Imagerights will pursue non-registered US infringements together with European infringements which were always out of reach for me. They will only pursue commercial use of images which is normal and economic for their lawyers. Since April, they have three successful claims for amounts which I would not have received if I had not used their services. Presently, there are 24 active cases and a further 20 under assessment. Conversely, there are 150 cases which they did not warrant pursuit due to the nature of the website (blogs etc) or they were outside the recovery area.
I have a one year subscription to Imagerights and what this also covers is submitting images to the US Copyright Office on your behalf. They will submit three separate submissions containing as many as you wish to the USCO which is included in the annual subscription. Each individual submission must be images which were published in the same year. Frankly, I was amazed how quickly the submissions were registered. In the past, it has taken me about six months to actually receive the Certificate of Registration. They were registered within two weeks and I received the hard copy registrations a couple of days back.
Another benefit of Imagerights is that they will search the images which you have uploaded to their site for you. You no longer have to sit at your computer right clicking your work to send them to Google Search by Image. Because I am also a paid member of ImageBrief ("IB"), they submitted over 650 images which I had uploaded to IB to Imagerights thereby saving me a lot of time uploading.
For those who my think that I am being paid by Imagerights for such a glowing report, let me assure you that I am not! Imagerights was recommended to me by another photographer based in the US who has been very successful to date. Her work involving celebrities is constantly infringed. Also a UK photographer I know is also extremely happy with the outcome of his cases on Imagerights.
20 December 2015
Since November, my work has been spammed on many websites by a Russian hacker and I have done a great deal to deter this jerk. On the bright side, this spamming has lead to two private canvas prints and two commissions, both in the high four figure mark. So there you go.
As any photographer who wants to protect their work from infringement, Google Search by Image has been a Godsend to those wanting to know where their work is being used without the benefit of a license and to counter the "if its on Google, it must be free" crowd! A few days back, I found that there was a change to the way that Google Search by Image ("GSI") was indexing this search function. This was somewhat embarrassing at the time as I was being interviewed by ABC journalist, Anne Barker and being filmed by a film crew from the Australian Broadcasting Commission, and I suddenly could not show her the results of this search engine. The ABC is doing an online/TV documentary on copyright infringement both in Australia and the US.
To cut a long story short, it would appear that GSI is not actually pinpointing where the image is being used and outcome of which the photographer would have to scroll through pages of websites to pinpoint where the image was being published. It should be pointed out that GSI is still finding the infringing sites but not where the image is. I posted on the Google product forum but really didn't get anywhere as the person who was responding to my comments in the end advised that he rarely used the function and was not aware of what the changes were or why. Sigh....so that was a complete waste of time! I have also Tweeted Google Australia and will post any response, if any.
For the US attorneys to pursue an action, you will need your images registered with the US Copyright Office. There are some exceptions so I suggest you contact them first. The US attorneys will normally act on a contingency basis. Again, there are exceptions. Carolyn Wright of PhotoAttorney is retiring in October 2016, hence the removal. Please feel free to contact Leslie Burns as an alternative.
Please feel free to contact me with recommended IP lawyers to add to this list. Please give contact name, name of firm and country.
I have recently been experimenting with the Topaz impression filter (although I think it should be called the impressionist filter..but there you go). I am much impressed and you can see the results to the right of this blog. Its a very easy filter to use and really quite inexpensive. It certainly does beat all the other filters around which turn photographs into "paintings". It has numerous choices of filters from abstract to sketch to Turneresque conversions. I have recently produced a five minute YouTube with before and after and if you got a couple of minutes to spare, take a look. I have uploaded quite a few to my Fine Art America site and await the outcome! Suggest you go full screen.
In July 2014, I found that
a UK "painter" was using several of my images as derivatives for his
paintings. Prior to this and several years earlier, he had contacted me via my website asking
permission to use my work for "study" or personal use. My response
was that he could BUT as soon as it became a commercial project, he must
contact me for a license. In July I found derivatives of my work on his
website where he was flogging off the "originals" for 2,000 quid and
prints at 85 quid. He also exhibited the derivatives at various galleries
in the UK. My email to his website bounced so I then contacted a journo
at the newspaper where he had an article on his prize winning entry in a comp -
guess what, it was a derivative of my work! The journalist interviewed him and he told the reporter that he had asked permission but had "forgotten" about the condition regarding commercial use. Yeah, right!
I eventually got a response
when I left a message on his FB page (amongst his adoring fans) and long story
short, he removed all of the work from his website and when I pointed out that
there were other photographers who would not take kindly of him using their
images without permission, he removed his whole site. His paintings
included Clint Eastwood, Bishop Tutu, Amy Winehouse (as well as six of my
Australian aboriginal images). Did all of these celebs sit for him? Of
course not. As an experiment, I took one of his images into Photoshop and
then took my image with exact size as a layer and guess what, they matched
entirely. Every hair, every wrinkle was in the exact same position.
For him to state that he paints free hand is absolute nonsense. I
am assuming that he projects photographs after having the image copied on to clear plastic or acetate and projecting it on to a form of media, being canvas or
whatever and it becomes a "paint by numbers" exercise. This, of
course, is not new. Painters using photographs as derivatives has been around a
long time. You only have to take a look at Fine Art America to see the
evidence of this. I also question why galleries allow exhibitions of
"painters" knowing that they are derivatives, many of which are
illegal unless the painter has the written permission of the photographer.
Under UK law, painters must obtain the written permission of a photographer BEFORE they can use the image as a derivative for their painting. Also there must be attribution that the original was a photograph and with the photographer's name. This did not happen in my case. There was no attribution at all on his website. Nor was there anything on his Deviant Art website or any other website where he had my work. I am checking out the UK Small Claims Court and am getting advice from a UK IP attorney as to what my next move should be.
An interesting Lynda.com interview on the Copyright Infringement with Carolyn Wright of Photoattorney. A very interesting and informative interview from Carolyn who is my US IP attorney.
Click here
I was recently made aware of a scammer on Craigslist who is passing herself off as me by advertising for an assistant and giving a link to my website. This of course is bogus as I have never advertised on Craigslist and therefore have not advertised for an assistant. So beware the scammer. She says her name is Sheila Denice Smart which is probably false. I have just put the first few words of "her" ad into Google "I am in search of dependable individual with a high pedigree to help me handle my Business errands." and found numerous scams which use the same text. All different vocations and names of the alleged poster over the past few years.
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
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
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
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
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
An elderly man puffs on a cigarette
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
