Using a social media web site (Ex. Twitter, Facebook and now Google+) is a common place activity for many, but every time a new social media site comes online the same discussions surfaces and the same comments are made about rights grabs, privacy concerns and the need to lock your personal information & photos offline to preserve your ability to protect your work/business. This later concern is one photographers

This past weekend I burned 1/2 a day digging up past images from a special time in my photographic career. That “special time” being a window of time when I was very serious about learning anything & everything about photography and remotely thinking about trying to do more with it as a profession. I then burned another 1/2 a day preparing those images for a formal copyright submission. Were all of th

The 31st episode, a special edition, of EXIF and Beyond has been released (duration 13:41 min.) This special edition of EXIF and Beyond features an interview with Lucinda Dugger, Director of Outreach and Field Initiatives for the Copyright Alliance. Discussed is the on going initiative for creatives of all type to sign a letter to the President of the United States to pursue policies that respect the rights of artist

A few weeks back I was hunting for music that I could use on a web based video and had a challenging time. As a photographer who cares about rights to my work being respected, I felt it was important to share that same respect to musicians whose work I wanted to use. Searching and gaining permission to use music for my photo video proved to be a huge challenge and got me to respect the Creative Commons initiative all

The answer… Submit a DVD full of your photos to the Library of Congress through the U.S. Postal Service. Today I received a letter from the United States Copyright Office that a relatively recent copyright filing could not be processed because the U.S. Postal Service irradiated my U.S. Priority Mail envelope containing a letter and DVD to the point of oblivion.  I understand the need be security conscious after

Adobe Lightroom has been a critically important application to my photographic workflow, but from early on watermarking functionality has been limited. The standard copyright text line provided by Adobe Lightroom is enough, but lacks the ability to be customized giving photographers using it some level of individuality. As noted in my earlier blog articles on watermarking watermarks are not only functional to avert i

Last week I put a good amount of miles behind me driving a Hybrid Toyota Camry across the Mid & Northwest which for all intents and purposes could have also doubled as an oasis of silence, shielding me from the constant flow of information that we are all bombarded with on a constant basis through various media outlets. There is a lot to be said for tuning out, but I opted not to as I jumped from destination to d

Technically I’m supposed to be unplugged for the next week as I travel, but I am reconnecting to relay two incredibly important things that require your attention. First I urge you to subscribe to a new & free online resource TOSBack.org, courtesy of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). This site tracks the Terms of Service of 44 Social Media web sites. Given many of my posts about the rights grab impo