Copyright law?

Hey all, time for a mid-month stimulus (I promise it won't cost $877B either!) The subject of this discussion is copyright law. I took a few photos this weekend of the kids sitting by a tree in the park, and after a little tweaking and cropping, thought I had something good enough to print for the living room. We weren't interested in archival quality prints, just something to hang on the wall or sit on a table. So, we debated... Walgreens, Walmart, or Costco? Final decision, Walmart. So, we uploaded the pics to their website and hit "submit."

But, when Stacey went to pick up the pictures today, she was asked to sign a release form! "A release? For my husband's photos? Oh, thanks, that's very kind of you, but, they're not professional"  "Sorry ma'am, but we need you to sign this release." So, she signed it and texted me her accolades. I was a little taken aback by the whole issue, and after being informed by another blog member that Walmart does this for almost anything that is in focus, I got a little curious. I did some googling of the topic and found a hotbed of angry Walmart shoppers with horror stories of photo center technicians withholding their photos in the name of US Copyright law. (Copy of the Walmart release form: http://i.walmartimages.com/i/if/hmp/fusion/Photo-CopyrightForm_Owner.pdf)

So, here's my topic starters: What experience have any of you had with printing copyrighted images (your own or others), what do you think about casual photographers being subjected to Walmart employees' judgement about the quality or verity of an image, and what about older images? Didn't Kodak invent a kiosk specifically created to scan old pictures, touch them up and spit out a brad new image of Grandpa to share with Grandma to make her day? What advice would you give others in the same situation? (aside from not going to Walmart anymore...) is it just Walmart's deep pockets that make them susceptible to this issue, or do others enforce a similar policy? Or is this issue so sublime that by hitting "submit" on the online printers that a release/permission is granted?

What say you photo bloggers?! (Remember, let's keep this informative and helpful, nobody here works at Walmart right? :) )

Late Summer

Thanks for the blog rules reminder, Craig.  On that note, here are my summer pictures posted promptly on the 14th :o)

Don't worry, they were all shot in June...

This year summer for me meant graduation.  My nephew graduated high school in Colorado, so I went out there and was able to visit Helen Hunt Falls near Colorado Springs (this Helen Hunt, not this one.)  Here are a few shots from there:

Summer for me also means water play, or at least it used to when I was a bit younger.  Since my son's birthday is in the summer and he had a party this year, I had fun behind the camera.  This was a great shot of him washing chocolate pudding off of his face (don't ask) with the finger-over-the-hose move, but more so because of the sacrifice.  That water soaked me, my camera, and the rental lens I had on at the time.  Luckily everything survived.

I could contrive a reason and say summer means "clear nights with a full moon", but the reality is that this is just a shot that I really like that happened to be shot in June:

This Blog "Rules"!

Hey everyone, Just wanted to update you all on the 'rules' of the blog, so we keep everyone engaged and the posts coming!  Keep in mind the following guidelines:

Monthly themes are posted between the 1st and the 5th of the month.

Monthly theme posts should be posted on the 1st of the following month, and should be limited to 5 photos.

Description, back-story or explanation of the photos is welcome and appreciated.

Monthly posts should be taken during the month, and not pulled from your archives. Remember, the monthly theme is intended to spark your creativity and encourages you to get out and take some pictures.

You can post in-between the monthly theme (i.e. at any time) with anything else relevant to photography (something interesting you shot, a book/post you read, or almost anything else), including pictures from old collections if you want.

Comments and critiques are welcome and encouraged (see Frank's earlier post about constructive photo critiques)

If you want to be included in the 'notifications' of posts or comments, let me or Mike know and we'll add you to the list. I think we have about half the group on 'instant notifications' right now.

Thanks and keep posting!

summer

To me summertime means fun in the water. One photo was taken from Bob Kerry Walking Bridge.It shows children having in the water spray.The other photos were taken at Table Rock Lake in southern Missouri over the 4th.They show a man on a jet ski [ I'm too old for this.], boats in the lake near Shell Knob Bridge, people on the lake enjoying a sunset, and then people at dusk waiting for the fireworks display that is set off from a barge on the lake. One photo of a rocket exploding.I'm still learning on taking photos of fireworks.This was my best one.For some reason, photos won't post in order I downloaded.

Summer!

For this month's theme I had a few different ideas. I couldn't decide which way to go, so I am just posting all of them!

My first submission was taken downtown Omaha at the Prairie Pioneer sculpture. It was a beautiful summer day (90 degrees!) and we took my mom to see it. These statues are just amazing and the kids enjoyed jumping on the limestsone and thinking about what the people were doing as they crossed the prairie.

This second entry is a typical summer evening on my driveway. This one was especially funny because they were all Gavin's Toy Story toys and they looked like they had all just stopped moving like they do in the movie and were laying there waiting for me to finish taking their picture!

These next two are typical summer afternoons with the kids and the baby pool. On this day, Gavin was being very mischevious and it ended with me getting very wet!

The last five are from our totally spontaneous trip to Adventureland. We awoke one Saturday morning and asked ourselves "What should we do today?" 1 hour later were in the car on our way to Des Moines, and had what our kids described later as the "BEST DAY EVER!"

Hope you all are enjoying your summer!

One more

First time posting. Let see if I get it right. In America we can't have summer without baseball. I photographed a baseball tournament for two weeks in June. Here are a few shots

July Theme

I love looking at pictures that have been taken with an extended exposure time.  A few of my recent favorites are lightning on a dark sky, the smoke trail leading up to an exploding firework and candlelit portraits.

So that is this month's theme...long exposure shots.

Summer Pictures

One thing I love to do during summer is evening photography. So gathered up a few of the other group members and we went downtown to do some night shots. Here are some summer night pictures from Omaha.

Storm Shot 2

This is a follow up to Papillion Mom's storm shot from a a couple weeks ago. This was the same shelf cloud just a few seconds later as it passed over our street. Captured with my 28-135mm IS lens. I didn't have time to change out to a wide angle lens before we were all headed to the basement and the sirens were going off!