Protecting your Photographs

This blogpost was spawned from a conversation I had with several of my underwater photography students this weekend and about 'orphaned works'. Read more about 'orphaned works, images' by opening the link below or by doing a 'Google'.

In the 'good ole days' of film, it was easier to keep track of your photographs and where and by whom they were being used. Now days, we share our photographs on-line and through several venues, such as Myspace, Facebook, Flickr, PhotoBucket and other 'web albums' and personal websites. Once on-line they are seemingly fair game for any and all viewers and potential users or abusers of your copyrighted photograph.

If you are a photographer you automatically have, own, the copyright to your photographs. That is nice, of course, but, only if a potential user of the photograph knows 'who' owns the copyright to it.

In this day and age of the internet and digital photography there are countless numbers of (digital/digitized) photographs on-line and available to any and everyone. So many in fact, that it makes one wonder, given the sheer numbers of them, whether photographs have any worth or value and therefore 'need' protecting.

Your underwater photographs do have value and to help you begin to understand its value, think about what it took for you to be able to get the photograph.

You first needed to learn how to scuba dive and that was not without expence. Next you purchased your SCUBA. Then it cost you some money to actually go diving. Finally you needed the underwater camera to be able to take that photograph and unless you were gifted one, that had a cost. I am only dealing with the intrinsic value of your photograph. There are other intangible values involved. In any event, however calculated, your underwater photographs do have a value and in my view worth protecting.

There are several ways or methods to alert a viewer or potential user that you are the copyright owner of your photograph and protect it from becoming 'orphaned'.

You can use a photo editing application to create a digital signature and over-lay it onto your photograph. The first and second photographs are 'signed' that way, for example. Using these types of applications you can also create a 'watermark' which alerts a viewer that the photograph is copyrighted and by whom. This is what I did to the third photograph, which I title 'Big Splash', for example.

Digital photographs are computer files. As such they have 'properties'. One other method I have recently begun to use to protect my copyright is to embed my copyright information into the digital photograph's properties. You may already own a computer program or application that enables you to do this, but, if you do not, I have included a link to Microsoft where, for free, you can download their program: 'Pro Photo Tools II'.

Using it is simple and you can embed your copyright info to whole folders of your photographs in batches. The first photograph in this blogpost shows a screen shot of Pro Photo Tools II, and, it is easy to use. Whether you use this application or another, it is a step that should, in my view, be incorporated into your post processing workflow.

Once you've embedded your metadata (copyright info) into the digital image it takes a diabolical character to un-embed it. But, barring that, you've helped protect your valuable photograph and your copyrights.

Is it worth it? Yes, I believe it is. Whether you are a professional photographer makes no difference. As outlined above, your photographs have value and are worth protecting.

This post just scratches the surface on this topic. There is a lot of information on the internet about the whole matter. How deep you delve into it, if at all, is up to you, but, at least in this post, I hope I at least convinced you of the worth in trying to protect your photographs. Because once you put them on-line for 'sharing' you are sharing them with the whole wide world, or, the world wide web.

On an aside here is the story behing 'Big Splash' and it ties in nicely with the topic of this post and of the value of a photograph. The first value of any photograph is it captures the memory. Jeff, my subject is one of my 'regular guys' who dives with me 'regularly' and took scuba courses with me. I took this shot of him as he giant strided into the water some years ago and it turned out to be a 'fun' looking photograph. I subsequently posted it on my website and its Fun Topside page. A few years later and a few years ago, I received an inquiry from a graphics artist who worked for a small corporation in North Carolina that wanted to use on a promotional brochure for a corporate wide event they were planning. The corporation paid me $ XXX.XX for the one time, non- exclusive rights to use the photograph. So, one never knows......

http://www.microsoft.com/prophoto/downloads/tools.aspx http://www.abouttheimage.com/photo/category/orphan_works/

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Okay... Back to Scuba Diving and Underwater Photography

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The Conch Republic: ' Where weird turns pro..'

I was walking home from the 'office' some days ago, and passed by the neighborhood gas station and witnessed the above pictured 'vehicle'. My first thought was: 'only in the Florida Keys!!' But, then I noticed that this contraption was licensed in and from the state of Michigan! It is referred to as a 'Boatmobile'.

The Florida Keys are also known as the ''Conch Republic". It is a comparatively small republic and I think populated by wonderful people in much the same way as small towns anywhere can be. It s also a place that attracts people with a different way of looking at things, and I am among them.

One of my friends, George, coined the descriptive phrase that titles this blog post. And when I saw the 'boatmobile' I also thought of George's quote.

Weird or not or Pro or not, it is actually a pretty cool, to me at least, vehicle. And at times, I find myself in envy of others' imaginations and creativity. For more about its story you can visit: www.myspace.com/themagicboat

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What will 'they' think of next?!

A short while ago, I was on the dive boat and at Molasses Reef, offshore of Key Largo. I was engaged in an underwater photography course with one of my underwater photography students. It was a perfect day for snorkeling, scuba diving and underwater photography as you can see in the above accompanying photograph.

Also on the boat that day were a couple and they were snorkeling and she had a very interesting mask. I started asking her all about her mask, but, she said she did not know a lot about it as she just purchased it and it was her first time using it. I settled for a yes answer from her to my question as to whether she would mind if I photographed her mask.

I date back to the era when masks were made with black rubber, metal frames, and their face plates made with 'safety' glass. They were ill-fitting, and equalizing often caused minor mask flooding. These masks were the reason why everyone learning to scuba dive also learned mask clearing skills!

The modern day dive masks are a wonder in fit and comfort. They come in many colors and constructed using soft supple form- fitting silicon. Some recent masks are made with optical quality lenses. A few are equipped with jet-fighter-like heads up displays, which give depth, deco status, and remaining air supply. Some are full-faced masks lending the ability for its user to speak to their buddy. Yes, they still leak, but far less, and mask clearing skills are still among skills we teach mastery of.

This mask had all of the features of a modern era dive mask, sans the HUD, with one additional and intriguing feature. It had a digital still camera built into it!

I spoke with its owner between dives and she said she liked it, had fun with it, but, used all the camera's memory on her first snorkel! I was disappointed because I was about to ask her whether she'd mind me trying it out myself.

Without promoting or panning this mask-cam, I thought it was a pretty cool idea and made me wonder: 'what will "they" think of next?!'


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Auld Lang Syne, well, 'kinda'

Call me sentimental; what can I say? I had a very special day last Saturday. Of course I have to wonder, given what I do, what days are not. I had scheduled a workshop and was working with one of my underwater photography students that day. My student, Ron, had planned a dive trip to Belize next month. Ron is a scuba instructor in Pennsylvania and is taking a group of his there. ( http://www.westshoredivers.com/) He had just purchased a housed dSLR camera system and had barely taken it out of its boxes. Ron thought it to be a good idea to come down to Key Largo and check these new 'toys' out in the 'sandbox' with me.

I was booking our dive charter for the day and was told that two long time friends of mine were also scheduled to be on the same boat and trip. John and Sasha, and are pictured above, and from your left to right, alongside me. This was a real special treat for me, as I go back a long ways and lots of dives with these two 'guyz'. Clear back to the mid '90s.

Sasha and I met back then and when we both were teaching scuba for other dive companies. He lived and worked up in South Beach (Miami) and I, here in Key Largo. Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday he would trek down here with his scuba students, so they would get a chance to dive our coral reefs here, rather than doing all of their dives offshore in Miami. Over those years we became friends. Sasha went on to start his own dive center, South Beach Divers and has been in business for over 12 years.

Since opening his business, it has kept him very busy with the 'business' end of it all and that has trumped the frequency that he can get down to Key Largo and dive and see me. While we only live 60 miles from each other, I had not seen Sasha for over a year!

Similarly, John, also lives in SoBe and he is one of SoBe Divers' longest time instructors. I go back with John almost an equal amount of years and to the time he was working on his Advanced Open Water Diver rating. I staffed his IDC. As a consequence of his work, John does not get down here very often either. It had been at least a year since I last saw John.

To be fair, I do not get up to South Beach, very often. I enjoy it there when I do get up there, it is just that what I do keeps me in Key Largo.

In total, the consequence of this is , while we only live 60 miles from each other, we do not see each other often, or often enough. Saturday, last, was exceptional. We had great dives that afternoon. Ron and I got any and all of his new camera issues sorted out and the camera is optimized for his upcoming trip to Belize. Sasha and John and I had time on the boat to reminisce about old times. We encountered each other during our dives and photos were taken when that happened. We had good diving conditions and weather, and saw the 'usual' cool 'stuff'. Eels , Rays, Sharks, Turtles. At the end of the day, back on the dock, they had time to stay for a couple of beers.

Was a very good time, and a sentimental one for me. Visit Sasha and John if ever in South Beach, and look them up at http://www.southbeachdivers.com/ . Tell them Larry sent ya!


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Happy New Year Everyone!!

Several months ago, I received a call from a dive buddy who told me that Good Morning America was in Key Largo, and, going to broadcast their morning weather report here. I hurriedly packed up my camera and rushed over to the location. It was not seven o'clock yet, but, there were a couple hundred locals already on site. Including a band who brought their own Margarita blender.

It is made with a conventional blender vessel and a circa 1950s Johnson outboard motor. It is so typical 'Keys' ( as in 'only in the Keys...') that I just had to have a photograph of it, not knowing when or how I might ever use it or share it.

I think New Years is an appropriate time to share this photograph of a wonderfully handcrafted and working Florida Keys Margarita Blender!

Happy New Year and be careful how many margaritas you drink, however you make them!


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