ACME Photography

My friend Leila is in Beijing China competing in the 2008 Summer Olympics. We grew up in eastern Montana and know each other through track and field. I went to school in Savage MT, a small class C school, she went to school in Sidney, Montana. We would often practice at their school before District and Divisional meets because they had a rubberized track and ours was a crummy dirt track. Sometimes different class schools would compete against each other because there’s not a whole lot of schools in Montana to start with.

About six months ago she asked me for some photo advice. Some of her fellow Stanford track & field friends were thinking about doing some fitness modeling. I’ve been to California several times this year for photo assignments and we both hoped that I could get to the San Francisco area on assignment and also photograph Leila and friends.

Fast forward to the other week. I thought I had a last minute wedding south of San Francisco, but the job fell through. I knew that Leila had made the trials for the Olympics and still needed some photos. She wanted to document her physique and have, “Something to show the grandkids someday.”

I messaged a friend and fellow photographer Gene X Hwang of Orange Photography – San Francisco to see if he could help.

Gene was able to help Leila and here are two of his studio photos:

Check out Gene’s blog post on the Orange Photography Blog to see some other photos. While I would have loved to photograph Leila, It was nice to connect two people I know and Gene did an awesome job at photographing Leila.

Gene met me while searching for a photographer to help with an assignment in Scottsdale Arizona. He googled and found my flickr photos and website. After meeting Gene in person at the corporate event we have keep in touch online as well. Gene has hired me several times to cover some Orange photography projects in the Phoenix area.

If you’re watching the Beijing Summer 2008 Olympics look for Leila. She’s representing Tunisia. I guess she’s was too good to make the USA team!

I’m off to goggle for “gym membership in Phoenix, AZ”.

Adam Nollmeyer
Arizona Photographer

http://acmephotography.net

I’ve talked about bloggers stealing photos belonging to other photographers. Usually the thief will go to flickr.com thinking the photos to be royalty free stock photos because the website is promoted as a “photo sharing” community. Sometimes the blogger does not know better. Other times they know it’s wrong and just don’t care.

When I read that Orlando wedding photographer Niki Hartman was dishonest in her business practices I was a bit shocked compared to other infringements. I’m sure every business owner makes a mistake now and again, so why the concern now?

The problem is that a photographer ripped off another photographer’s work and passed it off as her own. New York / Brooklyn based wedding and Boudoir Photographer Sherri Jackson [lasadh on flickr] was the creator of the image stolen by Nikki Hartman Photography to promote Nikki’s photography business – http://www.artbynikki.com.

The stolen image was on her blog as seen in this screenshot.

© Sherri Jackson – All Rights reserved – I was granted permission to use for this post

On Nikki’s blog she posts an apology.

This summer I have had a young and upcoming high-school photographer interning with me and had asked her to find me a stock photo to post on the blog because I did not want to use a client’s photo. Unfortunately she was under the impression that flickr was for stock photo…”

This excuse is weak at best. If my photographer, assistant, intern or anyone acting on behalf of my business does anything (good or bad) it is MY responsibility to know what they are doing and oversee their work.

Nikki’s blog post is dated June 12th and today is July 20th. Nikki let an her intern write an advertisement for an intimate boudoir photography, setting prices and and publish this on line without OK’ing it? I don’t think so.

Do you really think that her “intern” made this “mistake”? Drop a comment below and let me know what you think.

Adam Nollmeyer
Phoenix Photographer

http://acmephotography.net

PS: Soon, I’ll be releasing a new “tool” to help photographers deal with this problem. RSS this blog for more info.

Last year I discovered Valley PR Blog a Phoenix based blog brought to you by five local Marketing and Public Relations experts.

Their website was in the process of being re-designed by the web gurus at Forty Agency. I heard that the gang at Valley PR blog needed some more professional and professional headshots for their web presence. I was “online friends” with most of the contributers on facebook, linkedIN, and had met Dan Wool at some local Techie and Marketing type functions. I offered to help with photography for the new site. Below are some of their new images.

Have you heard of the mechanic with a broken car, the cobbler whose children have no shoes, or the plumber with the leaky sink? I have been doing my best to have current head shots of myself as well as keeping on top of sending current photos of our boys to my parents, the in laws, etc. (Good thing my mother isn’t an on line person, or there might be some comments below on this topic!) Yes, Photographers need photos of themselves and so do PR people. In fact I’ve made it a goal to post more photos of myself. I’m not stuck on myself or even a big fan of photos of me, yet neither are many of the business clients when they first call to book photography. Possibly me “going first” will make them realize that it’s really OK and that photography should not hurt.

Regardless of how much you like (or dislike) photos, a good portrait is key to telling your story and building a brand. People can relate to a happy, thoughtful, serious, or playful photograph. After the new Vally PR Blog site was launched Len Gutman posted a blog post titled “Hire Adam Nollmeyer” as he gave a review of the photos created for their project. The interesting thing will be seeing if PR and marketing folks will understand that I’m not a crazed maniac axe murder with a camera. Check out the photo of me that Len used!

[backstory: I had a minor accident involving a hatchet and my finger requiring a few stiches. I decided to ham it up and poke fun of myself through my own fun photo]

If you found this blog through google and you didn’t know about VallyPRBlog, then do check them out and get involved in networking online and in person with those in your industry. If you found ME through valley PR website and are thinking about hiring me…. I promise that I can leave my axe at the studio. I promise I’m not (quite) as crazy as I look.

Speaking of crazy, stay tuned for an article on how you can use crazy to promote your brand while NOT getting fired.

Adam Nollmeyer
Phoenix Photographer

http://acmephotography.net

BE RIGHT BACK.

Yeah! (if you are reading this text….. then our move to the new site is complete)

If you need to email me today, use adam [at] nollmeyer.net
if you are getting a bounce back from an acmephotography.net email

This post is here to let you know that this site may be 1/2 up and 1/2 down as the DNS propagates to a new host, everything will look the same, except that this post will not be there…

….unless I republish it.

*edited…. I’ve decided to keep this post up, because I would be upset if I signed up for a lousy host because someone deleted a well deserved post.

I’ve been with Host Department for over 5 years I believe. I was never a power user, but recently their hosting services has been more of a “non-service” than a service. I believe this web host goes by hostdepartment.com and hostdepartment.net The supposed owner / chairman is Jimmy Tanzil.

I subscribed to some different “uptime” tracking tools and every week they would be down for 1/2hr to 2 hours at least one day per week. In fact last week they were down for…. 3 hours one day and 14 hours another. Here is a report via HostTracker.com

Total uptime:96.57% Downtime:21 hour(s) 14 min(s)

Weekly uptime:88.76% (fail in my book) Downtime:18 hour(s) 52 min(s)

Day 2008-05-04 Uptime:100.00%
Day 2008-05-03 Uptime:37.78% Downtime:14 hour(s) 55 min(s) = maga FAIL
Day 2008-05-02 Uptime:100.00%
Day 2008-05-01 Uptime:83.55% Downtime:3 hour(s) 56 min(s) = another failure
Day 2008-04-30 Uptime:100.00%
Day 2008-04-29 Uptime:100.00%
Day 2008-04-28 Uptime:100.00%

What’s almost as bad as this type of downtime is their “Uptime Guarantee”

99.99% Uptime Guarantee

We guarantee that your website will be up all through the year! However, if your website uptime should be lower than 89.9%, we will give you a full refund of your hosting charges for that particular effected month. Please see your Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) for additional details.

So they say that they are, or rather should be at 99.99%, yet they really only mean 90% uptime. Say what you mean Host Department, or go back to school to learn better math!

This blog post is not meant as a review however if you are wondering which web host to use, I can tell you that host department sucks.

Who should you use? I hate to sound political, but ANYONE BUT HOSTDEPARTMENT ( also 1&1 stinks too) They both suck and are evil.

See you on the flip side.* I’ll probably flip the switch later tonight.

(*Edited…. Yeah, if you see this text we’re already on the new host)

Adam Nollmeyer
http://acmephotography.net

After a phone call with Terry Ng at Kineda we have come to an agreement only two days after the blog post about my image being lifted from flickr to promote a contest. Today’s post has several great links for web publishers, bloggers, photographers and journalists.

The “Win / Lose” (Kineda / Acme) situation turned to “Lose / Lose” and now it’s as close to “Win / Win” as it’ll be thanks to a collaborative blogging effort.

Kineda wrote a great blog post on “Fair Use” and what Terry learned through our phone conversation about photos and copyright.

I learned a good lesson today in the use of photos on your blog found on the web — not every image is free.

While looking for an image to use on my Vote for Kineda post a few weeks ago, I scoured the search engines for something that conveyed the feeling of being happy. Up came the perfect image that I cropped and used without second thought. It’s the usual process that I take and I’m sure many other bloggers take when looking for a matching image to go with a post.

In reading photographers ranting on forums and message boards, I’m realizing that this is a problem that can only be solved by educating fellow bloggers. Two days ago, I choose to blog about this before I contacted anyone. In fact Terry commented on my blog, sent me an email AND left a voicemail after he was notified by Glam Network of my blog post. It’s great that he was motivated to be proactive.

In the past I’ve emailed websites who infringe and they say, “Ah, sorry, We didn’t know.. but we removed it.” (Or blamed it on an “intern”.) If I were to ask for link credit on an old blog post, how much credit would that be after the post is buried in the archives? I shouldn’t have to blog this stuff every time, and it would could get old, however it is interesting to see the power of blog post, and self journalism.

You can find a TON of information on Copyright at Standford University Library.

There are many sections and here are a few brief highlights.

In talking about websites they have 5 tips.

#1 is the most important

• Assume it’s Protected (click for all 5) . — As a general rule, it is wise to operate under the assumption that all works are protected by either copyright or trademark law unless conclusive information indicates otherwise. A work is not in the public domain simply because it has been posted on the Internet (a popular fallacy) or if it lacks a copyright notice (another myth).
• The Basics of Getting Permission. (in depth via the link)
  1. Determine if permission is needed.
  2. Identify the owner.
  3. Identify the rights needed.
  4. Contact the owner and negotiate whether payment is required.
  5. Get your permission agreement in writing

How about You?

Have you had your work used and represented as someone else’s? Did someone use your WordPress theme, steal some code, or remix your work? How did you go about contacting the other person? How did that work?

Until next time,

Adam Nollmeyer

Phoenix Arizona Photography

acmephotography.net