Can you spot the difference?

I found a few of my images on ‘hometown hotties’ on the maxim website.   They published my work without getting a photographers release even though my © was clearly visible on the bottom of the image.  Notice how the ‘maxim’ image was enlarged to crop out my logo.

Here was my 2nd email to maxim.com:

My images are of Kinga from Vancouver.   All images i provide to clients have a © logo on the bottom with my name.  I have provided work to magazines (including Stuff online)  for years and it is quite standard to get a photographers release for publication.  I am just a little upset that my logo has been removed and a maxxim logo put on my images that are yet to be released into the US.    As Kinga is a client and i do not want to remove her from the competition,    I would be happy to see my logo/credit digitized onto these images.    ‘ © 2009 BWP.CA ‘

This was the response:

We require all Hometown Hotties entrants to get the photographer’s permission to use photos by signing a Copyright Release form. By Kinga submitting the photos without a form, we were led to believe that she owned the rights to the images. I’m very sorry that your photos were used, and name removed without your permission.

I’ve attached our Copyright Release form for you. Since Kinga is currently in a voting week and hasn’t yet moved on in the contest, if you’re unable to sign the release form I’ll be forced to remove her from the contest. I hope – as I’m sure you do – that I don’t have to remove her. Thanks for helping us – and Kinga – out with this. Sorry again for all the trouble.

Melissa Ward
Assistant Editor, Maxim Digital
1040 Avenue of the Americas, 22nd Floor
New York, NY 10018
212.372.3949

How casual. . .sign this little release giving them full usage, resale, cell phone uploads, manipulation, poster and cd reproduction oh, and the big clincher. . renouncing all moral rights and association that I created this image.   I have alot of strong words for that!!!!

I just confirmed with a lawyer that the burdern or proving ownership fully falls on Maxim and this ‘led to believe’ crap is just that.  It’s usually pretty easy to differentiate professional images from snapshots (especially when they are clearly marked!!).  Now how many other photographers have had their work stolen in the same fashion?   I just have to rant how pissed off i am when a company such as this with all the financial means has to ’steal’ work and especially remove credit.

So,  if anyone sees these images out there with the maxim logo,  I will be very appreciative if you could let me know. . . stay tuned!

Alyssa is going to be this years hottest Rookie up and coming cart racer!  She Just flew up from Edmonton for a race in Coquiltham and stopped in to shoot with her new high speed racer.  Apparently it can hit up to 160 kph. . . not bad for a go cart!  I also found out that she made the podium. . . Congrats!

I thought I would go for a modern take on ‘pinup’.  I used a hard overhead light set slightly to the left with a gridded softbox (30 degrees) at camera position on the floor (1 fstop under).  The rest of the effect was done in photoshop using the effects i detailed in the ‘kelsey & Lola’ photoshoot.

Yes you’re a ham!

Well it was nice to see Jason Dussault again after a long absense.  I would have seen him sooner but  unfortunately could not make the Vegas party with Chris Angel and Gene Simmons because of an overlapping holiday to mexico.  (yes,  that really sucked!)

It is always fun however doing a shoot with Jason and Mashia.  We were off to a modest start with some low key studio images and lots of post production styling.  These images were shot, retouched and laid out all in the last few hours. . . hows that for turnaround?

The distressed look came from a crumpled piece of paper with a darkened and worn edges. . kinda like something you might find in your jean pockets after a mud fight.  The image was inverted and the highlights (apple/click on the rgb layer) were selected and set to ‘liner light’ on a separate layer over Jason.  I used Alien Skins ‘brushed metal’ filter for the ‘Next’ logo, and deleted portions of with a custom brush i made on a masking layer.  Additional distressing was brushed on the metal with various shades of grey.  The write up came from the mind of Jason. . .

This Concept of Mashia I pretty much had to come up with on the spot.  They brought in a big white comforter and wanted to go for a bedroom ’snuggly’ look with teddy bear and all.  I would have gone that direction if the hoodie was white or cream, but the contrast of black on white did not speak ’soft’ in my mind.  I’m glad they trusted me to take it another direction. . . I also think it’s a better match next to the ad of Jason.

If you’d like to learn any more about this clothing line and see more of my work,  check out  DussaultApparel.com and their blog at Nippermulberry.com

Ok,  so here is my first unrelated BWP blog, but it is a great story worth sharing:

“Molly is a survivor. This little pony is a Katrina survivor who was rescued from the floods by a kind caring pony lover in New Orleans. Kaye Harris runs a pony rescue in New Orleans and when Katrina hit, she took in as many refugees as she could including some dogs. As her rescued animals were trying to adjust to their new and confusing surroundings the stress was too much for at least one and the result was horrifying. An abandoned pit bull took it’s rage out on poor little Molly, barely any bigger than the dog herself.”

“The dog destroyed Molly’s right front leg so bad that all the tendons and arteries to the hoof were severed. The rest of her lower leg, the canon bone, was also destroyed. Molly did her best to heal. She never even got infected, but the injuries were too extensive to heal completely. A few weeks after the attack, Molly’s hoof died and fell off of her leg. By this time, there were already plans to have it amputated anyway.”

“Two Doctors from LSU were determined to save Molly’s life.  In addition to the amputation of a major portion of Molly’s canon bone, the surgeons also skin grafted over her remaining canon bone where previously the skin had not returned from the injury. It’s all very complicated, but Molly seems to be holding her own. Her cast includes a post that reaches to the ground so if she wants to she can put some weight on her short leg in order to balance or travel. She is using her temporary leg a little bit.”

Kaye is caring for Molly daily and watching over her recovery. Fortunately she was the right horse with the right owner.  Molly happened to be a one in a million patient.   Molly has a job now. . Kay the rescue farm owner started taking molly to shelters, hospitals, nursing homes, and rehabilitation centers.  The little pony that could has become inspiration to so many people.  She survived a hurrican, she survived a horrible injury, and now she’s giving hope to others!

I has been years since have changed my business cards,  When you have something that works, it is hard to break from tradition.  With the launch of my new BWP site which is a clean slick minimalist gallery style,  i figured it was time to have a card reflecting the same look.

You can never really get it all in on one card, but i think i did pretty well.  There are a variety of ethnicities, a classic Harley and a token familiar brand name . . . 

For the last  17 years my trade phrase has been ‘uniquely elegant to outrageously wild’ which i felt really defined what i do. . .  it was however a little wordy and quickly forgotten as everyone these days seems to have A.D.D!  With some professional marketing advice and a little resistance from me,  i changed my theme phrase.  In a moment of inspiration ‘Be sexy, Be seen’ rolled off my tongue which i think is catchy and etches ‘B’ in to your mind with the logo and my name. . . . Branding, Branding, Branding!

Because there are so many small images, I want a really sharp card.  I consistently print with Generation printing.  They print Stochastically at 10 micron which with the naked eye is indistinguishable from continuous tone.  For reference,  most other prints shops print 20 micron and up.  You can order online at www.keeperkard.com

I just thought i would share a very frustrating moment from this weekend.  I recently rebuilt my whole computer system and was reloading software.  One particular program i had purchased did not provide serial numbers on their site (which i had lost).  Being a rather impatient fellow at times,  i decided to use a crack til they sent me my serial.  I pulled this number from my laptop and entered it into my main computer,  On hitting ‘enter’ my computer went into speed freak meltdown. . . windows were opening and closing, screensavers were changing, and i could not even control the mouse.  I was sure they wrote in a virus that was unleased by this crack.  Well a couple hours later,  rebooting, restarting, system disks, etc,  I picked up my laptop and all of a sudden it all stopped.   I guess when i placed my laptop on top of the wacom tablet it created some from of electrical interference.   Imagine in one moment, worrying about client deadlines, computer repairs, reshuffling your life, and then simply moving a computer and all is good . . . Whew!

Welcome to my Blog,  this is officially the fist of many entries of past and present photoshoots and the fun we’ve had doing them.

Well this was the end of our first day of shooting in the alpine of Whistler.  We hit some pretty interesting remote locations and it was definitely a huge learning curve bringing my camera gear into -5 weather.  James (pictured right) ended up having to warm the camera batteries under his armpit between shooting as the cold rapidly depleted them.   Gene was suprisingly in good spirits despite long cold days and a rather hectic shooting schedule.  I only needed to take part in a portion of that, and it still wore me down. . . most of it was ‘hurry up and wait’.

The film crew and support staff were pretty cool. . . a mix of LA and Whisler.  Here we are waiting for the rest of the film crew,  Gene Simmons and Jason Dussault.   Nothing like doing self portraits when your boredThe 2nd day of shooting turned out to be a mixed blessing,  sadly we missed a world record snowmobile jump by Chris Brown because the weather socked in . . . it was going to be 300′!!!!!!!   So the following day we hit another secret spot and were still able to witness some spectacular stunts.

Watch for this and more on the whistler family jewels episode apprearing July 27. . I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they were nice to me in editing. . cuz you never know!