Taking a Picture of the Parking Lot at Night...Just because.

© 2010 FalconRose Photography,
1/15, f/1.8, ISO 800, NR on, and noise reduction with PhotoScape.

Possible New Gear in a couple of Months...

Well, it seems like I will be getting the minimum amount of gear that's required to do wedding photography. My mother's leaning towards that and making sure that I have a "piece of paper" that indicates that I know what I'm doing with regards to photography. Being self-taught doesn't translate well to customer confidence with regards to photography skills. Thanks, Mom. I owe an incredible debt of gratitude to you for doing this.



This camera is the D300s (yeah, yeah, I know the photo says D300, but trust me, the D300s is pretty much the same thing with movie function). It is what is known as an advanced amateur/semi professional camera and because the D3s and D3x (which are professional cameras) are severely out of my price range, I'm going to go with this particular camera. It is 13.1 megapixels (13,100,000 pixels) and coupled with a MB-D10 battery grip/EN-EL4a combo, I can boost my frame rate to 8 fps (frames per second) crucial for nailing the shots of the recessional and processionals. . This will become my primary camera. My D50 will be my secondary for candids that won't be blown up any larger than 5" x 7". Keep in mind that its the guy behind the camera and not the equipment that produces the picture. If the equipment was the key element in a professional photography, you could stick the Nikon D300s into the hands of a baboon and he'd be able to be a professional photographer. It is still the brains and the skill that a professional photographer possesses that outputs a professional grade image.



This will be my workhorse lens. The Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII. This is the long-range lens that will enable me to keep out of the way of the ceremony while taking pictures that the bride will remember for the rest of her life. It'll also be the workhorse that I use to take pictures of the first dance and the bride's dance with her father. Plus slap that on the walk down the aisle and I don't have to follow the bride and her father down the aisle to give her away. That way I'll be able to stay out of the way of the flowergirls traipsing down the aisle as well.



This is a DX format Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 Di II VC (Vibration Control) lens for wide angle shots of the interior of the church. With this lens, I can stand in the balcony of the church or give it to my photographer second and tell him or her to go shoot the crowd at the wedding ceremony from the upper balcony. This also works for the semi-formal group portraits of both the bride and groom's wedding party. When you can prescout out a location for the semi-formals then you can get the bride and the bridesmaids into a group shot and the groom and groomsmen into another shot. The 17-50mm range is ideal for that. Ideally, I would love to have a super-wide, but as far as I'm concerned right at the moment, this gear will get me going.

Ideally I would have liked to have kept all my lenses Nikon, but unfortunately, with the 14-24 f/2.8 and the 24-70mm f/2.8 both running $2000.00 CDN each, I would prefer to be making money with the Tamron and then upgrading when I have enough money.

For the first dozen or so weddings, I'm going to work as a photographer second to the primary photographer as I have a friend who does this. This is essential in learning the pace of the wedding and getting an idea of where I have to be situated to get the shots that I need to record the happiest day of a woman's life.

Missing My Dad - Photography in a Black Mood

Really missed my Dad today. So I pulled out my camera, set his old jacket that he used to like to wear on a chair and took a photograph.


Defining Sorrow #1 (RIP Dad) An Empty Chair
© 2010 FalconRose Photography

I also reworked a photograph from our graveside visit and made it darker and inverted the colors to signify my mood.


Defining Sorrow #2 (RIP Dad) Contemplations over a Grave
© 2010 FalconRose Photography

Copyright and your right to put up pics on Facebook...Where do you stand?

I'm getting a little concerned with the proliferation of my school friends and online contacts putting up "pro-pics" (photographs taken by professional photographers) of their weddings, their children, their engagements...etc. I'm hoping that all my friends have taken the time to read the contracts that they signed at the start of the photo shoot that they have had. As much as I love seeing the photographs of the friends that I've known for many years, especially when they're done up so superbly, I also wonder what the professional photographer is thinking when he/she sees their work displayed all over the place without recompense. As a photographer myself, I know that I wouldn't want my photos displayed all over the place without a limited use disclaimer for the end-user (that is yourself...) When I did photography for my friend from college, I gave him "limited use rights" for his own Facebook page/website and for his own promotional materials (as he is a professional orchestral/soloist trumpeter/trumpet teacher). That's why you see his photos on both my blog as well as his Facebook. But unless you have that disclaimer in writing, you tread on very thin ice.

Back in the days of film, you either had to get a film print directly from the professional photographer because in those days, none of the commercial photo-developers would touch a professional print with a ten foot pole. The copyright infringement implications were too great. And despite web-media nowadays, the laws are even stricter. Not only are there monetary fines, but there are also jail terms for copyright infringement. That's a scary prospect; just for putting up a professional picture on your Facebook account.

Canadian Copyright Laws:
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/legislation/canadian_law/federal/copyright_act/cdn_copyright_ov.cfm

US Copyright Laws:

http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html#501

The penalties under US Copyright Law:

http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html#504

(b) Actual Damages and Profits. — The copyright owner is entitled to recover the actual damages suffered by him or her as a result of the infringement, and any profits of the infringer that are attributable to the infringement and are not taken into account in computing the actual damages. In establishing the infringer's profits, the copyright owner is required to present proof only of the infringer's gross revenue, and the infringer is required to prove his or her deductible expenses and the elements of profit attributable to factors other than the copyrighted work.
(c) Statutory Damages. —
(1) Except as provided by clause (2) of this subsection, the copyright owner may elect, at any time before final judgment is rendered, to recover, instead of actual damages and profits, an award of statutory damages for all infringements involved in the action, with respect to any one work, for which any one infringer is liable individually, or for which any two or more infringers are liable jointly and severally, in a sum of not less than $750 or more than $30,000 as the court considers just. For the purposes of this subsection, all the parts of a compilation or derivative work constitute one work.
(2) In a case where the copyright owner sustains the burden of proving, and the court finds, that infringement was committed willfully, the court in its discretion may increase the award of statutory damages to a sum of not more than $150,000. In a case where the infringer sustains the burden of proving, and the court finds, that such infringer was not aware and had no reason to believe that his or her acts constituted an infringement of copyright, the court in its discretion may reduce the award of statutory damages to a sum of not less than $200. The court shall remit statutory damages in any case where an infringer believed and had reasonable grounds for believing that his or her use of the copyrighted work was a fair use under section 107, if the infringer was: (i) an employee or agent of a nonprofit educational institution, library, or archives acting within the scope of his or her employment who, or such institution, library, or archives itself, which infringed by reproducing the work in copies or phonorecords; or (ii) a public broadcasting entity which or a person who, as a regular part of the nonprofit activities of a public broadcasting entity (as defined in subsection (g) of section 118) infringed by performing a published nondramatic literary work or by reproducing a transmission program embodying a performance of such a work.
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So when you go in to see a professional photographer, please do your due diligence homework and get yourself a limited use rights release allowing you to put your "pro-pics" up on your website, on your Facebook. After all, putting up your pics for everyone to see is worth it, but getting dinged $30,000 or more up to an amount of $150,000 is not worth it to the pocketbook. Please be careful, my friends.