As a photographer, I’m happy for people to use my images, as long as they ask. The little bit at the bottom of every page on this site that says…

All images © Steve Roberts 2006-2010
No unauthorised use

…isn’t there just to look pretty. A few times in the last year, I’ve had people using images from this site on their own websites, using the image that I’m hosting (and therefore bandwidth that I’m paying for), without attributing the image to me.

I’m not extremely militant about copyright, as one of the reasons for taking photos is to share them, but it’s a bit rude to use them without my permission. I’ve never yet said “no” to someone who has asked if they can use my photos.

Fancy making your own 3d digital camera? If the answer is yes, then I advise you not to do what Digital Rev did! They decided to rise to the challenge of creating a 3d camera on a small budget:

It’s an amusing video, with tongue embedded solidly in cheek. After dismantling two Kodak cameras, super-gluing them (and everything else to hand) together, there’s a crazy decision to mount the new 3d camera onto a pair of goggles. Unsurprisingly it’s fairly difficult to focus on two LCD screens an inch away from your eyes (although it seems to work for Vuzix Wrap glasses…?). The main downside of using two cameras side by side instead of one camera with two lenses, or one lens that splits the image is synchronising of shutter action…a problem not solved within this video! As for the red/cyan anaglyph images they’ve thrown into the mix? Well the standard configuration for those glasses is blue on the right eye, and red on the left. The images in the video require red on the right, and blue on the left!

I feel suitably mocked, but it’s all in good spirit. I should thank Tom for bringing the video to my attention in the first place! I’m still going to continue with my 3d photography though, although not in a weird way like the video!

Having just bought a d700, I’m currently working out which strap to use with it. I don’t particularly want to use the strap that came with it, because that advertises the camera too much (it says “Nikon D700″ on it), and I don’t want to appear either as a poser, or as a target for thieves. The strap that I’m using in the interim, before I decide properly is an old guitar strap (pictured) that I used to use as a strap for my previous camera bag. It’s surprisingly comfortable actually, but it would be nice to have a proper strap. I considered a wrist strap instead of a neck strap briefly, but as I often carry several cameras at weddings, it’s useful to have them round my neck.

I’m not really one for predictability, so I think a plain Nikon strap would be a bit boring, but I want a good quality strap that will last. In the grand scheme of camera straps, Op-Tech are most definitely king, offering a wide range of straps of all shapes and sizes. They’re all quite plain though.

Because I’m a bit odd, I have actually considered getting a Canon strap for the Nikon…and that’s still something I’m seriously thinking about. However, I’ve just discovered HighKey; a relatively new American company that specialises in exciting straps. It’s run by photographers, so the quality is likely to be good, plus I could potentially customise a strap. I’m not going to buy anything just yet…but the idea of an srphotos.co.uk camera strap is a strong contender alongside a Canon strap! I’ll have a bit of a think, then report back!

To make the most of the wonderful weather today, I set out with my mate Tom to take some photos in the sunshine. Several locations were discussed including Dungeness and Chatham, but it’s only when we were actually in the car that we settled on Leeds Castle.

This was the first chance that I had to properly try out my D700, and I have to say that I was quite impressed. I’m still getting used to the layout of the various controls, as there are several differences to the D50 so that when I shoot my first wedding of this summer with the new camera I’ll know the camera inside out. I think I may be close to convincing Tom to go for one when he changes his camera next…! Because I was experimenting a bit with the camera, I didn’t take as many photos as I might normally, but I’ve decided to upload a selection anyway:

Spring afternoon at Leeds Castle, Kent

These days I don’t normally take photos of wildlife and plants, preferring urban landscapes and people more, but it was certainly fun. The swan was particularly difficult to photograph as it was so inquisitive, and kept coming too close; Tom was nearly bitten! I reckon we’ll probably head back to Leeds Castle slightly again later in the year, as the daffodils were past their best today, and there were a lot of flowers in bud rather than in bloom.

I did take a few 3d photos, however my 3d lens is a “DX” lens, and I forgot to switch the D700 to DX mode before taking 3d photos, so unfortunately they didn’t really come out. I’ve now, however, configured the function button to allow me to switch quickly between FX and DX modes without having to navigate the menus.

Next weekend I’m going to hopefully do a bit of a photo walk around London, giving me another opportunity to learn more about the D700.

I was horrified today to see the following job advert on a photography jobs website:

I require a second shooter for a wedding in Surrey on May 15th 2010. You will be chucked in the deep end and left on your own with the groom as he is getting ready. You will then meet me at the service and assist me from there. You must be friendly, polite and be able to think on your feet. Wedding experiance is prefrable but not essential, this is a great oppertunity for someone looking to gain experiance. You will need a DSLR with an external flash and at least 8gb memory. Canon prefrable as I can lend you my gear if necessary. Pay is £7 an hour and I will need you for roughly 4 hours. If you’re interested send me an email telling me a bit about yourself, what kit you use, and some examples of your work.

This worries me on behalf of the couple. I’m sure when they were told (or maybe they asked) that they would have 2 photographers, they would expect coverage from two photographers who had worked together in the past, or at least know each other. Normally packages cost more when 2 photographers are present, so what is the extra money going on? According to this advert, one of the photographers may be a complete newcomer to wedding photography, yet will be solely in charge of covering the groom’s preparations…would you pay more for that? I know that I wouldn’t – wedding photography isn’t cheap, as what you’re normally paying for is the experience of a photographer. Also, from working with another photographer for some gig photos a few years ago, I know that you can’t just turn up and expect that you won’t get in each other’s way, so this sounds like a recipe for disaster.

I’ve recently been helping my brother choose a wedding photographer for his wedding. I can’t cover it because I’ll be one of his best men, and it’s a bit far away from Orpington and Kent for me to suggest any of my contacts from around this area. I’ve therefore been advising him on photographers in the Birmingham area, and been realising how much of a minefield choosing a photographer is! The best advice that I’ve been able to give them (aside from advising on style of photos, and what you get from the various packages to ensure value for money) is to meet with photographers.

I would say that in general when meeting with photographers, the main thing is to work out whether you would feel relaxed having them at your wedding. Do you get on with them, and do you like the images they show you? That’s the main thing that you get from meeting them. However, one extra bit of advice I’ll now be giving my brother and his fiancee is to check whether the photographer sub-contracts any of their work or works with assistants they don’t know.

Talking of working with other photographers, the website of a good friend and a great photography companion has just gone live today; check out Dauben.co.uk. Now he’s someone I’d gladly work with at a wedding!

The digital economy bill is something that has been given a little bit of media coverage, but it has massive implications for a lot of us; if not everyone. It’s been rushed through the Commons, and the Guardian have a great guide to how it stands. It seems that everyone who is aware of the bill has an objection to part of it. Probably the majority of objections have been concerns about the power of ISPs with regards to illegal downloads (clauses #4 to #18). There are plenty of posts in the blogosphere about this, so I’ll not bore everyone by just repeating what’s been covered elsewhere.

The thing is, the only thing that was really of interest to photographers (that was in fact very concerning) was clause #43, which talks about ‘orphan works’ and how they are to be licensed. Luckily it’s one of the clauses that was removed from this bill, but I’m not convinced that this is the last that we’ve heard of this legislation.

‘Orphan works’ are defined within the bill:

A work is an orphan work if a person—
(a) has carried out a diligent search to find or, if necessary, to identify and find, the owner of, or of an interest in, copyright in the work, and
(b) has published the notice required by this section, but has not found the owner

It goes on further to make sure it’s a legally-complete definition, but in general, it’s saying that an orphan work is one where you can’t easily trace the rightful copyright owner. The licensing rules within the bill start with a paragraph that essentially summarises the whole thing:

The Secretary of State may by regulations provide for authorising a licensing body or other person to do, or to grant licences to do, acts in relation to an orphan work which would otherwise require the consent of the missing copyright owner

If the bill had been passed with this clause in its current state, the danger would be that someone could find one of my photos, claim that they can’t find me, contact a licensing body, pay a small fee, then essentially use it as if they own the copyright. Woah there! That’s a bit harsh. Luckily, we had an MP in the Commons fighting our corner though. Don Foster, who was my MP when I was a student at Bath Uni proposed an addition to that first paragraph:

…require the consent of the missing copyright owner subject to subsection (1A) below.
(1A) The regulations may not authorise the grant of a licence in respect of works of photography created after 1950.

So even if this clause does rear its head in another form, we’ve got an advocate “on the inside”. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the bill goes down though once it’s written into law. It’s a shame it’s been rushed through; there are some important issues in it that I think needed more debate than they’ve had.

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I added new functionality to “like” photos this weekend. I thought that I wouldn’t make it too complicated, so didn’t factor in the option of people clicking the “like” button more than once. I am a fool.

I shared the functionality with my colleagues today at work, and it didn’t take them long to realise the simple implementation. They then set out on a personal mission to make this little otter very popular indeed. By the time I had left work, the otter had been “liked” over 2000 times, due in part to the creation of a “likeomatic” javascript function that one of my colleagues wrote, which would keep clicking the “like” button.

I’ve decided not to revert the numbering on the little mammal back to sensible numbers, as I think I need to be reminded to be more careful before I release things to a bunch of geeks! I have now used a session variable to hold an array of photos that a user has “liked”, so that it will only register one selection of the button per image, per browser session.

Additionally, I’ve decided to add a “share this” option to all images on the site, to allow social media sharing. My colleagues can now share the picture of the otter on Digg, StumbleUpon, Facebook, Twitter and more!

As well as celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, my plan had been to get out and about this Easter weekend to take some spring photos of blossoms and blooms, but the weather had other ideas unfortunately. The only “outside” stuff that I managed to get done was cutting the grass and a bit of weeding, which unfortunately had to take priority over taking photos. Just as I finished, the heavens opened again! If I had got out, I might have taken photos like this (from last May):

As it was, I took the opportunity to get cracking with a few changes to this site that can be done before the major re-work later this year. The first change is that it’s now possible to “like” photos. I’ll be using this as a way of choosing portfolio photos, as what I like isn’t necessarily what normal people like. Why not check out my wedding gallery or my normal gallery and “like” a few photos?

The second change is the addition of a links page. It’s been on the list of things to do on the site ever since srphotos was born, and I’ve finally got round to doing it. It’s taken so long because I’ve been too busy taking photos, or improving the site in other ways.

The third change isn’t live yet…but it’s a work in progress. I’ve never been happy with my wedding prices page; every wedding is different, so I don’t want to tie things down to pricing packages…but on the other hand I don’t want to be so vague that couples have no idea what I’m charging, and why. I’m therefore working on a pricing page where couples can enter details of their day, and get back a customised quote. It’s a fun algorithm to work on!

So, it’s been a busy weekend. Oh, and I did get round to doing a bit of photography; I’ve now taken a few shots that could potentially be used for the line of greetings cards that I’m working on. That’s something for another day though.

Today marks the 3rd birthday of srphotos as a business, and I’m happy to report that things are still going well. I would probably have been surprised this time last year if you had told me that I would have devoted so much of my time, money and efforts into exploring 3d photography, but hey, it’s been quite an exciting tangent to head down, and it’s promising for the future.

As far as weddings have been concerned, it’s been good to travel around the UK a bit to cover various weddings, however it’s good that this summer my weddings are closer to Orpington and in the South East. Combining 3d and weddings has been interesting, and it’s still an area that I need to work on. As for equipment, I’ve finally got my hands on a D700, which will be invaluable in low light; although I’ve managed up until now with my D50, I’ll be able to get even better results now. That’s the final large bit of capital expenditure that I forsee, so from now on I won’t be needing to channel all of the money I earn into new equipment.

Looking forward into this year, I think I need to properly work out where this is going as a business. Up until now I’ve been just going where things have taken me, which has worked so far, however I think I need to be a bit more structured going forward. I’ve got a website redesign in progress, I intend to work out a price generator for wedding quotes, I’m looking to possibly release a line of greetings cards, and I may even go to a wedding fair or two.

Here’s to another year of business!