Category Archives: Ideas

Photographer Beware – Two Examples of Intellectual Property Rights Grabbing ‘Contests’

Minor updates were made to this article in May of 2018. Note that the examples come from nearly a decade earlier, and that the parties mentioned may have changed their policies since they were originally posted. Although the specific examples are now dated, they still illustrate things that anyone considering entry in a “photo contest” needs to understand.


If you ever read the terms of many “photo contests” you have likely been appalled by some of them – and you should be! By simply entering many of them you surrender substantial rights to your own work. Today I want to share two current examples – each of which is very troubling though in somewhat different ways. Continue reading Photographer Beware – Two Examples of Intellectual Property Rights Grabbing ‘Contests’

Good advice for shooting ‘sunsets’

In a post at Focus on Singh-Ray Filters, Steve Kossack writes:

“I have learned not to walk away from a Sierra sunset until well after the light has faded to almost complete darkness.”

I strongly share this point of view. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been surprised by the most compelling evening light long after many other photographers have packed up their gear and left. While the warm “golden hour” light is indeed wonderful, all kinds of astonishing stuff can happen after the sun drops below the horizon. Sometimes the light shines upwards and suddenly illuminates high clouds; sometimes it takes on color casts are almost beyond belief; the colors often intensify and deepen; clouds and mist change form as the temperature drops; and on certain lucky occasions you may even begin to see some stars or planets in the sky.

A ‘revealing’ thought about photographic goals

While reading this morning I came across a bit of writing by a photographer who prefers not to engage in any post-shutter-click “manipulation” of the photograph because his goal is to “record” what is there.

Thinking about this a bit I realize that “recording” is not very interesting to me. Instead I prefer to try to reveal what is there.

Camera or Photographer? Why “or?”

Seen at Paul Butzi’s Musings of Photography blog, a link to something Mike Johnson wrote:

“Cameras don’t take pictures, true; but then, people don’t take pictures either. People with cameras take pictures.”

Yes, a concise and direct response to the unending and pointless debates between those who want to believe that it is either all about the camera or not about the camera at all. Thank you for that!