A long ride with a small camera

Last week I went for a long ride, from my home in Danville, CA to my brother's home in Pittsburg, CA - it's about 25 miles as the crow flies, but I took the undulating route on the back streets, roads and trails, over a number of hills - a tough long ride.

I had my GoPro Helmet Hero Wide with me- a great little 5 megapixel point-of-view camera with an ultra-wide lens and a mix of attachments - to attach to your helmet, around your chest (their chest mount harness), a suction cup mount for moving vehicles or boats- all kinds of ways to attach it to anything you wish. It's small (probably half the size of a regular point-and-shoot) takes an SDHC memory card, runs on batteries, and fits into a waterproof housing - all with an affordable price tag of $189.

I rode for about an hour in the late afternoon, up a big hill into open space on the flanks of Mount Diablo, entered the trails and turned my camera on (in the auto mode to take a still photo every two seconds). Over the next hour of so, my camera captured approximately 1400 images as I headed off the trails, onto the roads of Walnut Creek, through the city of Concord, before the memory card filled up cutting off the camera at dusk as I approached Pittsburg. I had another 45 minutes left to ride (over the last grueling hill in the dark), but I figured my GoPro captured enough images to check out later that evening.

When I returned home, I loaded the images into my MacBook Pro using iMovie, found the right timing per slide to make it flow well, added some copyright free classical music, and created this fun little movie.

So here's my ride October 22nd, 2009 - an hour portion of a 2.5 hour ride from Danville to Pittsburg, California - 1462 still images, broken down into a 3:38 minute segment, edited in iMovie (part of Apple's iLife '09). Enjoy- I hope to do more- maybe an all-trail version, or attaching it to a boat, kayak, or vehicle.

See it in HD on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz7oQoHFtek&feature=autofb

Go Pro Camera: http://www.goprocamera.com/

Apple's iMovie: http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/

My segment on The View From the Bay (ABC KGO-TV 7, San Francisco) featuring the GoPro camera: http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=view_from_the_bay/consumer_finance&id=6914730

Discounts on photo gear, free shipping, and more

When you follow my blog, take a workshop, buy my book and write a positive review on Amazon, you get perks- that's right, I throw DOWN for my students and fans! :)

FREE SHIPPING on HOODMAN LOUPES:

Ordering a Hoodman loupe and want free shipping? Go to Hunt's Photo and Video and when you add the loupe to your cart, at checkout type in "SArbabi" to the coupon field - that equals free shipping!

http://www.huntsphotoandvideo.com

FREE GIFT WHEN YOU BUY A CAMERA BAG/ CASE:

Go to Think Tank Photo and use this link below:

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When you do, if you buy a camera bag/case over $50, you get a choice of one free item valued around $20-30 (three to choose from). Great cases- I have four of them and love 'em- best camera bags made out there.

$20 OFF OF YOUR NEXT ONLINE WORKSHOP:

I teach online workshops with BetterPhoto.com - the past three years to students in 30 counties and 43 US States - come and take a course online, on exposure (my course) or many others including photoshop, composition, lighting, and more- tell 'em I sent you and you'll get $20 off of your next course: http://www.betterphoto.com/courseOverview.asp?cspID=144

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If you read about them here, and I recommended them, tell 'em I sent you (Sean Arbabi - The Photoguru) and you just might get free shipping or a discount. More discounts to come in the near future!

Photographs aren't free

I recently received an email from someone claiming to be a writer for a how-to website. This person stated they wrote articles for the search site and wanted to use one of my images for their article (originally used from one of my Via magazine assignments).

This is normal in the photography industry, and a big reason why I own all of my images (and do not do "Work for Hire" jobs which transfer all image rights to your clients). I grant first-time publishing rights, and once my photos are used by my client, they are part of my image collection, available to license through my company or my stock agency. Some clients think licensing our images is 'extra money' but it's not- it's simply part of our income as freelance photographers - photographers with no guaranteed source of income, no benefits, no 401K or pension plans.

Getting back to the request, after doing a little research on my own, I come to find out this person was not a writer for the website, nor employee as a writer anywhere else. Instead the site relies on people for their content - it's like saying you're a writer for Wikipedia. And not to bash this person since most people aren't aware of copyright laws, or the licensing fees for a photograph, or the proper way to go about obtaining images - shoot, I've had some editors and clients in the past who didn't necessarily follow the proper way being in the business of licensing images - but pleading ignorance doesn't necessarily get you off scot-free either.

Then as I researched the how-to site a bit more I learned that my image was ALREADY on the site - with the credit listed as the magazine I originally shot it for! They basically took the image from Via's website and pasted it into their article.

At this point I had a few options - I could:

1) Contact my copyright lawyer and sue (which is the last thing I would do since mistakes do occur, and I'm not one to stick it to people that way)

2) Send them a bill for licensing, charging them a penalty for illegally using my image (this is more in line with the norm, and completely appropriate since the image was up for at least a week or two).

3) Notify the "writer" and the website were infringing on my copyright with the unauthorized use of my image and to remove it immediately or face a possible lawsuit and licensing fees (which is what I did).

The site removed the image that day, and at first the "writer" was a bit rude but after explaining the law, she relented and apologized. If they made me an offer to pay for the use, I would have looked up the licensing fee in my price guides, and charged them appropriately including the time they had already used it for. If she didn't apologize, she would have been dealing with my lawyer. The site also tried to claim that they didn't have control of what members uploaded- wrong- if it's their site, they SHOULD have control - or they might get sued.

Moral of the story- your photos are exactly that- yours. If you are a professional photographer with your own business, they are not just sitting in your files or computer, they are part of your inventory. I can't just go and take something off of the shelf at Target, walk out with it, and claim "it was just sitting on your shelf". A lot of money, time, effort, experience, knowledge, and equipment goes into all of the images I produce- as with any business that has a product to sell. Control your photos - do your homework - purchase pricing guides and/or software like Fotoquote or Jim Pickerell's stock guide, and prepare yourself for the day when a client wants to buy one of your images- or one uses an image without asking for permission. And if someone tried to abuse your copyright, find a lawyer.

Irregardless of royalty free photos, royalty free art, royalty free graphics, and all the accessible work on the internet, my photos aren't free.