Stop Waffling

I have been wrestling with watermarking my images. This portion of an e-mail I got today made the decision for me. The first two images of this horse are mine in the MSN search. MSN does not host my websites. And neither the host of my site, nor the host of my database include content stealing in their terms.

"you are likely aware of the World Cup photos of her that are posted and available for free use (by the terms of the websites' hosts, such as MSN, etc.) "

As much as I prefer my images to be seen without a watermark, the general misinformation of the public makes me unable to do so. Though a copyright infringement would pay much more than the licensing of the image in question, it is much more of a hassle and not the way to do business.

Using What You Have

The paper produces a bi-monthly lifestyle tab with a column with local bands. We are mandated to shoot them all in the same small studio, as it is a working space the conditions are cluttered, so the options are a bit limited.

Being a fly-by-the-seat of my pants kind of girl I enjoy the challenge of making something with what the location provides. Last night it was the disco ball laying on the floor.

I wanted to do something strongly back lit. The disco ball became great fill.
1. The first shot was the first shot with one light.
2. Adding the disco ball with the same exposure.
3. Adding a second person, same exposure. The band has four people, and I was pretty sure I would have to add a light, but I didn't want to light it from the front, and I wanted to play with the reflective squares from the ball.
4. I knew we were going to get something out of this when the first thing they said when they walked in the room was, "Can we use the disco ball?" This confirmed that I needed to add a second light.
5. Lost some of the punch of the reflections, but I really like how the prisms of light from shooting into the second light add to the reflections from the ball.

Goat Racing

The first Sunday in May id the annual Bock Fest at Sly Fox Brewery in Phoenixville, PA. The year's Maibock is named for the winning goat of the goat races. 2009 is Dax Bock. It sounds like a 70's porn star to me. There was a photo finish for second and third places as determined by my image.

WCU Graduation

In 12 years at the paper I haven't covered graduation at West Chester University. I don't feel like the 15 years have past since I was on the other side of the lens on the field of Farrell Stadium.