Well I have just been lucking out with a long run of sweet and beautiful senior girls lately, and Kathryn was no exception!  Although I do have a bone to pick with her, she told me she did not have a good “serious” face, and as you can see below, that is not the case at all.  On and on I blabbered about how I hated the way my serious face turned out in all of my senior pictures, and it’s okay, no big deal, we’ll just give it a shot just to see, and bam.  She nails it.  So rude!    Just kidding, Kathryn (kind of).  I had such a great time – we shot at two new locations I scouted out up in Frisco, and I was really pleased with how they photographed.  The only thing we had to contend with was a very chilly wind that decided to come through that day, but Kathryn was a trooper, even in her cute little dress!  I had so much fun Kathryn – you have a really infectious smile (and a killer serious face), and I wish you the very best next year!  Enjoy!

This week’s theme over at I Heart Faces is dramatic black and whites.  Even though this composition is that of a pretty standard headshot, I think the light and shadows, her outfit, and her expression give this shot plenty o’ drama!   And can you believe this lovely young lady is a senior? 

Yes, I said SENIOR portraits, not model headshots or commercial work.  Haley is an aspiring photographer herself, and you could tell she really knew what would look good from the other side of the camera.  I have known Haley since she was about 8 years old, so it was so much fun to take these pictures and capture what a stunningly beautiful young woman she has become.  Not only was she graceful, poised, and confident, but since I have the pleasure of knowing her I also know that she is a lovely, spiritually-minded, godly young woman as well.  She really wanted something classy for her senior portraits, so we searched the metroplex high and low until we came up with this gem of a location.  It was perfect!  Thanks so much Haley for choosing me to capture this moment in time, and I still contend you have a career in modeling if you want it – no one would pay attention to how tall you are once they saw these!

Haley was kind enough to indulge me in a little series I had envisioned as soon as I saw this door.  They turned out great!

I had the pleasure of spending what turned into a very long evening with Shelby last week during her spring break.  She took advantage of my Senior Package so we could shoot at two locations, and we definitely lost track of time!    We visited a lovely park down in Highland Park, and then jetted over to White Rock Lake for the very last of the daylight (and then some).  As you can see, she is an absolutely beautiful girl, and she brought such great outfits.  We also connected over our favorite Office episodes (mine is the one where Michael grills his foot, FYI).  She was such a trooper – climbing up and down hills, scaling rocky cliffs (sort of), and walking straight out into the thick weeds (a.k.a. the “unknown”) all in those cute flip flops.  Thanks for a great time, Shelby, I had  so much fun! 

Doesn’t she have the most beautiful eyes?!?

I was pumped when I saw this week’s theme, because I just love this shot I got of a beautiful senior girl last week!  There’s nothing too crazy about the angle, but I do like the perspective and the lines.  I added some texture just to give it a little more depth.  I’ll have more for you soon Shelby!

Head on over to I Heart Faces to see more great shots!

I’m so excited to share these with you!  Emory graciously agreed to model for an awesome online seller I’ve teamed up with – Lucy Mae.  She carries the most adorable bows, headbands, and other accessories, and let’s be honest, I’m a sucker for accessories.   As expected Emory is both a total natural and a complete goofball.  Since it was still a little chilly when I worked on these, I also got to utilize my new studio set-up indoors.  Have I told you I LOVE  my new studio?  Anyways, you should go check out the Lucy Mae store and become a fan on Facebook!  She has some neat new products coming soon, and she also posts specials to her page! 

Hannah in Purple

Vivienne in Light Pink

Abigail – Strawberry Pink with Brown band

Abigail – Strawberry Pink with Brown band / Watermelon Pink with Green band

And my favorite shots … Abigail – Pink with Pink band

My favorite, what a ham!!!

While I have been lucky enough to not have run into this yet (or just not caught anyone yet), they say that prevention is the best remedy, or something like that.    I came across this information on fellow photographer Marinda Fowler’s blog and thought that it was very well put-together and worthy of sharing.  I think that often when clients do violate copyright, they just don’t know that what they are doing is wrong.  So, I’d be grateful if you’d take a minute to read over this!  It will help you decipher what you can and can’t do with prints, digital files, and the pictures I post to my blog and Facebook.  I do have a couple of comments of my own that I’ll save for the very end, so make sure to read all the way through!

What is copyright?

The U.S. Constitution and the Federal Copyright Act give “copyright” protection to “authors” for their “original works,” such as photographs.

What does that mean?

Simply that the law protects the original works and gives the exclusive rights to reproduce them to the author.  When the copyright has been violated, the author can pursue legal action and the offender can be held liable and fined.

So, what are the rules regarding the prints I purchased from my professional photographer?

Here are just a few examples of things that you may not do with your professional photos:

• Scan them – for any reason
• Copy them
• Reprint them
• Crop watermarks out of photos and repost them on the web
• Edit them – in any way
• Take pictures of your printed professional photos (especially with your cell phone) and post them on the web.
• Throw darts at them.  Ok, fine.  Do it if you must! 

Well, why can’t I scan them?  The photos are of me and my family?

While the photos might be of you, they are not yours.  The images belong to your professional photographer; who owns the copyright.  Granted you may have purchased a print of the image, and you are encouraged to display that image and enjoy it.  However, it is not at your disposal to make copies of by scanning or any other means.  It’s actually against the law.

Also, most professional photographers like to maintain quality control over their work.  There is a large quality difference between a scanned photo and one that your photographer creates and sizes for use on the web.  We do not like to see our work all distorted and wonky because it has been scanned.

What’s the big deal?

The big deal is that your professional photographer works extremely hard at creating the beautiful images that you see.  Everything from lighting, posing and post-processing goes into one single image.  In that regard, your photographer will price their work to maintain a profitable business.  When clients start scanning images and reprinting at home or worse, local one-hour labs, they have basically stolen the ability for the photographer to make a profit from that image.  Since selling their artwork is how photographers earn a living, it tends to make us unhappy when clients steal images from us.

Aunt Susie saw my photo and just wants to have one little copy of it.  Now what?

Great!  Your photographer will be thrilled to help you get one little copy of that photo for Aunt Susie.  It’s always a great thing to hear that your family and friends love our work!

I bought the disc with the printing rights.  What can’t I do with these images?

On the print release form, there will be instructions on what you can and cannot do with the images contained on the disc.  However, just for the sake of education, I’ll give you a quickie list of those things.

Things you can do:

• make prints for personal use (up to size 8×12)
• make greeting cards for personal use
• make photo books or photo gifts for personal use
• upload the images in the WEB folder onto the web to share with your family and friends (however, please do not remove the watermark)

Things you cannot do:

• enter the photos into contests – nope, not even those “cute baby” contests
• post full-size non-watermarked images on the web
• alter the images – part of your photography experience with your professional photographer will include the photographer’s time and talent in editing/processing your images.  If you do not like the style in which your images were processed, it might be time to look for a different photographer.  I’m just sayin’.

What about the images on your blog and facebook?

The images on my blog are meant to be enjoyed and viewed.  If you would like to share the images on my blog, please do so.  All you have to do is share the link (URL) with your family and friends.  Or,  you can simply find share buttons at the bottom of each post and share them anywhere you’d like.

The images on facebook are also meant to be enjoyed and viewed.  I welcome and encourage you to tag yourself in the images on facebook or share the link to the images.  I also welcome and encourage you to use the images on facebook as your profile photo as long as you do not remove the watermark in the cropping process.  To avoid removing the watermark, simply drag the cropping bars all the way to the edge of the photo.  Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy!

Okay, I get it.  I might have violated your copyright policy.  Now what?

Hey, don’t sweat it!  We all make mistakes and I’m sure that you did not intend to do so.  I simply ask you to make an attempt at rectifying the situation.  If you’ve scanned images and posted them on the web, please take them down.  If you need a watermarked copy of the images to use on the web, please contact me immediately and we can get that taken care of.

And please, please, please… promise to never do it again!  xoxo

For more information on the issue of copyright, please take a moment to read through this article on photolaw.net: http://www.photolaw.net/faq.html

I just want to take a second to highlight a couple of things she mentions.  Not only is scanning and reprinting images damaging to the photographer’s bottom line, but it is damaging to our reputation as well.  As mentioned a scanned image will not be anywhere near the quality of a standard print or digital file obtained from me.  When you post or print this image and the notorious Aunt Susie comes along and says, “Oh, who took that?” and you tell her it was me, she may very well go away thinking poorly of me and my business because of the quality of the image you showed her.  My reputation is even more important to me than any lost profits, because that and the referrals that result are what keep my business going. 

Secondly, I want to discuss the watermark.  The watermark is not put there for marketing purposes (although sometimes that is a nice side effect).  The watermark is there to protect my images from being downloaded and used by others in ways that I have not authorized.  Just this week the work of several high-profile photographers was discovered “stolen” on another photographer’s site – they were trying to pass it off as their own.  Images have also been taken from the internet and used in ad campaigns or other ventures without the permission of the photographer or subjects.  That is not cool!  So please, don’t crop out the watermark from the web images and don’t post the full resolution files if you purchase the CD.  Not only are the web images watermarked, but they are down-sized to a low resolution for web use (making printing difficult).  If you post the unwatermarked full resolution images to the internet, not only can they be stolen for use on the internet, but they could be taken and printed for any purpose imagineable. 

If you made it this far, thanks and congratulations! I hope that this information has been helpful to you.  If you have any questions at all, please ask!

I had the pleasure of spending a couple of hours with Jonathan on Saturday taking his senior portraits.  He was so easygoing and up for anything, including trekking down into a creek and dragging my big black chair into a field.  And it was a good thing Mom came along!  Not only was she an expert reflector holder, but she got so many great natural smiles that I barely had to do anything.    And it is a great smile, isn’t it?!?  I had such a great time with you two, thanks for making my job all too easy!  I’m looking forward to meeting the rest of the family this summer!

A couple of weeks ago I turned twenty-something, and to celebrate I bought myself a little birthday gift this year.  I saw these camera straps on another photographer’s site and decided I had to have one!  They are made by Denise of August Blossoms and she does a wonderful job!  She custom-made one for me so I could fit a bigger lens cap in the little attached pocket (an awesome feature by the way).  If you want to add a little style to your gear, head on over there and check her out!  She has lots of gorgeous fabrics to choose from, or I think she can use any fabric you want.  I love my new strap – super comfy and so cute!  Happy birthday to me! 

I knew exactly which shot I wanted to use for this week’s theme!  I just adore this picture of my Emmy getting all ready to go out into her first big snow adventure!  We ended up with over 12″ here in Dallas by the time it was all said and done – unheard of!  We were actually both sick, but I decided this was “once in a lifetime” snow (at least in this area), so we bundled up and went for it.  She had no idea what was going on, and I think this picture captures her perfectly.  Love that girl!

To see more great shots, go check out i heart faces!