My Most Anticipated Book Purchase

Okay, sample pages of Joe McNally's new book Hot Shoe Diaries

You're welcome

New Pocketwizard W00T!

Oh man! Hurry up and get the Nikon versions out there already!!! I need me some new Pocketwizards....

Although maybe this means the old "pick your nose" style Pocketwizards will be cheaper??
Yeah, I doubt it, since they've made the new Flex and Mini backwards compatible...sigh. One thing I did notice is how much the new Pocketwizards look like Elinchrom Skyports except with hot shoe mounts on them.
What this does mean is that I need to keep trying to make some more photography related money, or save some more photography related money to get my hands on some Pocketwizard goodness. There's going to be an 8 month lag time in letting the Nikon versions out..right guys?

More soon...

Facebook and Terms of Use

So in January this year Facebook decided to changes it's Terms of Use (TOU). They now say that:

"You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof. You represent and warrant that you have all rights and permissions to grant the foregoing licenses."

While I'm not too surprised that with the crazy obsessiveness people use Facebook these days that they've decided to change the TOU to something a little more all-encompassing and long-term, I dislike the fact that anything that I now post in promotion of my photography is now "owned" by Facebook. Likewise with any pictures I've taken that a client posts on their own profile. The moment it now appears on that Facebook website, Facebook can do whatever they want with it and do not have to compensate you for the use of it. You have no say in anything that they do to any information that you've posted, any opinions that you've made, or works of art that you're sharing.

A major part of what irks me is that it appears Facebook has decided to retroactively put this clause in place. There wasn't general notification to users in January that the Terms of Use had changed and that to me is being irresponsible on Facebook's part.

Not sure what this means for my posting portraits on Facebook for clients to see and share with others. Do the risks of Facebook picking up my stuff to use for promotion ad infinitum outweigh the costs of me servicing my customers and clients who in all reality will probably post any photos I've shot of them to Facebook anyways? Probably not. Still is something to chew on though.

More soon...

Photo Featured in BlogTO Article!

It's not everyday that a picture of mine gets used in public media, so it's kinda cool when an older photo I submitted to an online publication, BlogTO, suddenly finds it's way into the sunlight.

Definitely not one of my favourite pictures I've ever taken, but it's served its purpose here!

Check out Lauren Wilson's article: "Digging for Underground Supper Clubs in Toronto"

More soon...

It's ALIVE!!!! Part Deux

Alright so I've had my site up and running for a month now...

Liked the design...it showcased my photos relatively well... The design I really wanted didn't showcase them well because...well they came out looking all pixelated and jaggie.

I mentioned the other day that I figured out that through my site host I can only upload photos through IE and being a staunch Firefox user I was left unaware that my preference in browsers would force me to use the lesser web design.

WELL NO MORE!!!

Today I was able to switch over to my preferred web design!



More soon...

There's a Fix!

It had been bothering me since the website went up. My pictures were clear on this blog, they were clear when I took them, they were looking fantastic in PhotoShop and were even looking great in Windows Picture Viewer and it got to the point where I was starting to resent the site!

For some reason though they were appearing all jaggie and oversharpened. I vowed today to get to the bottom of the problem...and lo and behold I found the answer!!

The website I host my site through will only properly upload photos if I do it through Internet Exporer (IE) and not Mozilla's Firefox which I've used for the last eight years or so. It's a bit of a pain in my butt, but at least my pictures are looking MUCH better now.

More soon...

February Fotoshoot

So the shoot-a-month project continues this month with shots for Jen ...





...and then some for Robin!!



I'm loving my new backdrop, and really loving the results from this shoot!!

More soon...

What Cuties!

Had the opportunity to take pictures of two amazing people this afternoon, and thought I'd share one of the cutest pics of the two of them!


Thanks Jenn; thanks Robin!

It was cute watching the two of you spending time together. Hopefully one day you'll find yourselves in the same town for a while.

Individual pictures to come!

More soon...