By Ken Parks, March 15, 2013
The Internet can be used for good business purposes, such as
my wedding photography business, WeddingsThruTheLens.com. My images have been created for the purpose
of striving to create what I call "The WOW Factor." I have shot several weddings, models, and
even a wedding in Italy.
Most everyone knows that I have an infatuation for the
Italian culture. My Italian friend,
Dino, who lives in Vigevano, Italy has taught me a variety of culture, language,
architecture, cuisine, and has been my host on several field trips such as the Dolomiti
Mountains, Torino's Egyptian Museum, The Shroud of Turin, Innsbrook, Austria, and the list goes on
and on.
The meetup groups in Atlanta have offered me several
opportunities to photograph models, events, and some neat locations throughout
Georgia. And through some of these
meetup groups, I have accomplished winning awards in photo
contest/galleries. I don't participate
in contests anymore as I have proven my abilities. Some of my photographs have been featured in local magazines and national news websites.
In all of my adventures and wedding assignments, I have
taken countless thousands of photos, with only a few select images for the eyes
of my viewers. My most recent photo gig
was Zoo Atlanta, and it was a blast. My
two Canon 7D cameras rendered more than 1,900 images, and yet I posted only a
handful, my best shots. And, I often
employ post-production using Photoshop CS5 (5 years experience) and NIK
software complete (3 years experience).
However, it has come to my attention that some people saw
fit to take some of my images and posted on their website as their own. I am flattered that they have selected these
"WOW Factor" images from my website.
One of my best wedding model shoots was that of a friend on my Facebook
account. The meetup group had set a
modeling session and used four models. I
shot several images of my FB friend and published a few. She loved them, and at one time used one of
my images for her Profile picture, commending me on my talent.
This is bound to happen when photographers with little or no
experience, will take from someone's website photographs of higher
quality.
I don't mind; there are more impending issues that keep me
from wasting my time chasing down those who take my images and post them on
their website as their own. I just
happened to stumble on a few. Again, I think this is flattering. There's no harm done. If they took my images and won a highly
publicized contest or had them published on the front cover of a wedding
magazine, then I would do something about it.
In the mean time, I move forward with the quest for the
ultimate "WOW Factor" photo.
All four images were selected from several shots taken about 2 or 3 years ago at a wedding model shoot in Lawrenceville, GA. I assisted the organizer as to the best lighting source such as the frosted windows for soft light and poses. Of the 15 photographers at this meetup, my Facebook friend selected only the top image for her Profile picture. I was honored.
ReplyDeleteMy FB friend has more than 20 years experience as a model and during the shooting session, she proved her ability to pose. At one point she was saying that she was getting too old and that other younger models were getting modeling gigs that she used to get. I told her that I'll make her look much younger than 40ish with some of my post-processing techniques. I wish I had the software "Portrait Professional" back then. Now I use it exclusively for model and portrait shoots. She looks absolutely stunning!
ReplyDeleteI confess, I did use a Metz 45 CL-4 for bounce flash off the ceiling, enough to work with the ambient soft light from the windows. The other three models required more instruction of posing, but they did a good job.
ReplyDeleteBack then, I didn't have the Canon EOS 7D, but shot with the Olympus E-3 and E-30 DSLR cameras. For some of the shots, I used my old legacy lens, Zeiss 80mm f/2.8 Planar *T lens adapted from the Hasselblad to fit the Oly cameras. It's my tack-sharp lens for portraits and model shoots.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletetally agree with you that the internet can be utilized to help businesses, especially those who are budding and on the rise to prominence. Congratulations for launching your website, though the picture stealing is a bit worrying. I believe there are ways to safeguard you intellectual properties, such as these WOW factor images, through professional web development channels. You can minimize having these problems in the future in that way. I’m pretty sure that digital commerce practices will just continue to expand together with your business and problems like this will become the norm unless you deal a proactive stance against them. A helping hand wouldn’t hurt. Beautiful pictures by the way. More prosperity to you and your business!
ReplyDeleteMarta @ canyonmarketing.com