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.

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

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

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

**UPDATE**
Kineda apologizes and makes good as seen here.

How ironic is it that an online fashion lifestyle magazine would use one of my images without permission or photo credit to solicit votes for a contest which is for Publishers. The infringes are publishers, and they are publishing content that is NOT THEIRS asking for votes an industry award.

I had to laugh, as I thought it was strange.

From the Kineda website as seen here. (If they remove the image, screenshot here)

The 2008 Glam Network Awards are here and Kineda has been nominated for the Best Lifestyle Publisher award.

Head over to the Glam Network Awards website (no registration required) and show us your love by voting for Kineda in the Lifestyles category.

Terry Ng & Tami Ng used my image of Justine Ezarik and Brian Shaler as seen here on my flickr stream.

Here is the image:

I overlaid the image from their site, (yellow box) on the original so show you how it was cropped. Don’t you just love how the crop “conveniently” cut off the acme logo, as well as the Acme Photography website address? Notice how the logo for Glam Media (sponsor of the contest) was placed on the photo by Kineda, yet my logo was removed.

What should have happened? Kineda should have contacted Acme Photography and asked for permission to use the photograph to help them recruit votes for the contest. While the photo used is more of an editorial style than a fashion photograph, the audience which reads Kineda and other sites in the Glam Media network probably include those in the fashion industry who may be interested in hiring a commercial photographer for advertising or a print campaign. If they had contacted me, I would have asked for some “link love” and proper credit, and this could have been a “win win”. I may have even blogged about the photo use in a positive light and sent them some of my traffic.

What’s going to happen now? I have yet to contact Kineda, or Glam, It would be funny to do something like “Rick-Roll The Mets” and have everyone vote for ONE RANDOM COMPANY who is NOT Kinda. I’m going to drop them both an email, however I have a meeting to go to. Maybe tomorrow!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this matter. Leave a comment below.

Adam Nollmeyer
Phoenix Arizona Photographer
acmephotography.net

I saw this message from Scott Beale a twitter contact:

So for some reason this guy thinks it’s ok to just upload other people’s photos to his Flickr account: http://twurl.nl/ynwsr7

Sure enough, Amit Agarwal a “well known professional blogger and personal technology columnist for national newspapers” had stolen my photograph of Seth Godin as seen below. He did not simply embed the photo on his blog, he re-uploaded my photograph, and then marked the photo as Creative Commons (CC) which means that he is allowing others to use, share and re-mix a photograph which HE does not have rights to.

*Update* If you want to check his flickr account to see if your photo has been stolen, click here.

Then a few minutes later, Lane Hartwell a San Francisco Photographer and online friend through flickr said:

hey, look, one of my shots stolen! http://tinyurl.com/38gfsp let’s tell the guy he’s a douchebag! (to which many people did!)

If you are looking for photos to blog or use for a project, you must look at the Copyright status of the photo. If the photo is marked as © All Rights Reserved on the right under the “additional information” section, then you must contact the photographer to ask permission, or see if there are any notes on the photo about usage.

Now for the ironic part!

I went started poking around Amit Agarwal’s flickr account and then goggled to find his blog.
Here is what I found:

• this flickr image of Amit’s warns others to not steal his content. (not sure if I should embed it on MY blog, would that be a double standard, or triple standard?)
• Argawal blogging in 2005 on About.com ripping off an article of his.
• I love this one, yet another article on “Dealing w/ Website Plagiarism: When Somone Copies Your Blog Content“once again from Amit Agarwal.
• An article here on how Corbis is letting bloggers use their images. (so why steal from Flickr Photographers?)
• Dealing with blogger.com and how to Write a formal complaint to get blogspot content removed.
• This blog post talks about 1) Cease and Desist Letter and
  2) Contacting the Web Company.
• Still no luck, how about a form letter for a DMCA notice of Copyright Infringement?

I do believe that with all the articles this “Professional Blogger” has written on the subject of copyright infringement, that what he did was no “honest mistake”…. I will give him credit for promptly removing the photos from flickr and also providing photo credit on the flickr pages as a referance. While I don’t expect everyone to be as educated on photography as a professional photographer, one should expect a professional writer (who has written on THIS subject matter several time) to at least be able to follow his own rules. Is this a fair standard?

This is NOT the first time that someone has ripped of Lane, Scott, or my photos, howver I’m going to start featuring some more of these people. If you are not an Internet junkie then you may have missed some of the previous Ripoff’s from my fellow photographers.

More reading - Here are a few blog posts from previous infringements.
Why Lane Hartwell Popped the ‘Bubble’ Video @ Wired.com
SF Examiner Uses Photo without Permission or Attribution @ LaughingSquid.com

I will be featuring a few other infringerd in the next week. Stay tuned to see what other “Professional Bloggers” are dropping down a run on the ladder by ripping off photos. I will also give you some TIPS for contacting photographers and turning photographers form “Photo Usage Nazi’s” into your friends.

Believe me, we can play nice, just remember that it is a a 2 way street. I have to go now to pick up some blank DVD media so I get these NetFlix movies copied and then posted to eBay and craigslist.

Adam Nollmeyer
Phoenix Arizona Photography
acmephotography.net

Yes it’s Easter Sunday, and I’ll show you how I know!

Empty Tomb - Sunday Morning

IF you know me, then you’ll know that I’m a big fan of Flickr as a photo sharing website. If you are a mom, dad, high school student, college student, hobbyist photographer, grandmother, blogger or business owner than flickr is a tool you can use. A few months ago flickr released a statistics tool for those who have pro accounts. (Pro accounts are about $25 / year… but you don’t need to pay for a basic account)

Here is a look at the stats for the photo seen above:

It’s interesting to see that 1/3 of the views on this photo have been in the past 7 days!
If you haven’t turned on your stats, you need a pro account, then go here.

Having the ability to track the trends is a nice feature of flickr. This is nice if you are using flickr for your business, as a promotional tool, or if stats and numbers or SEO is of interest you. I believe I tweaked the Title a few weeks ago when I noticed that some our ACME’s Stock Easter Photography Images on flickr were getting more hits than other photos which normally receive many views. I think the previous title was a little less descriptive… possibly “Easter morning” or just “Empty Tomb”.

The easter photos do have good tags, which helps in aiding the photo in being found through google, yahoo images, as well as other search engines and flickr’s internal searches.

Remember, if you find photos on flickr, that does not mean that that they are free for the taking to use for whatever purpose you want. The photos still belong do the photographer, so it’s important to look on the flickr page to see if the photographer allows you to use the photos for YOUR blog, power point presentation, or for stock use. Some photographers may license their photos as “Creative Commons” (CC) or they may be marked “All Rights Reserved”.

I mark most all of my photos as “All Rights Reserved” (ARR) however if you CONTACT me and let me know your intentions I’m usually happy to license the photo to you, or in some cases let you use them for a nominal charge and in some cases for free, depending on your use. I’ll then require proper link credits, which is the proper thing to do on the Internet anyway. Watch my photography blog for an upcoming post on using photos from flickr and some tips for contacting photographers you find on line.

Have a great Easter!

Adam Nollmeyer
Phoenix Arizona Photographer & Flickr Expert.

I flew 7500 Miles to thow dirt at ACME Photography!

We haven’t seen one of these, but maybe should I should have some printed.

Giora Ackerstein and his son flew from Herzlia, Israel to Phoenix, Arizona to attend a ground breaking ceremony for their company, Acker-Stone. AckerStone manufactures advanced environmental and construction products which are marketed throughout the US.

Here is a PR photo of Giora and his son:

The land is owned by the Gila Indian Community, and they are leasing the land to Ackerstein Industries. Ackerstein will also provide jobs to members in the Chandler and Gila River Community.

Because the sun was very bright I wanted to keep the sky blue, but also use a fill-flash to overpower the sun and light up the executive’s faces. I would normally have used  strobist techniques utilizing a powerful battery powered flash, however there was a generator nearby, which supplied power for the PA and lights in the tent where the reception has held.  I simply  ran a 100 foot extension cord and plugged a studio strobe into a white lightning x3200 monolight strobe, attached a beauty dish as a light modifier, then metered to light the group photo.

Here is a setup shot:

During the ceremony a Rabbi as well as an Indian spiritual leader blessed the land. The event concluded with the groundbreaking then a light lunch. The day after this event the Ackerstein’s jumped on a plane and headed back to Israel, and I sent a few high resolution photos to them for a press release in Israel.

It’s great to see new businesses come into the valley and I’m always a fun of any groundbreaking that is NOT in 100deg + temperatures.

Until next time,

Adam Nollmeyer - Acme Photography
acmephotography.net

Feel free to check out all the photos on my event Flickr account.
View the event photos in an easy slideshow here.
Or view the photos as a gallery style - non slideshow here.

Below are some photos which I thought told the story of the Christmas time caroling and the fun times had by all.
———-

Practice makes Perfect!

Some girls were practicing singing “Silent Night”…. I’m sorry that I made fun of your singing abilities………
At least you were singing, and practice is great. You probably sound better than I do!

The event started out with a Bagpipe Processional:


Everyone marched down the hall and the party officially started.

James Telich Welcomed everyone:

Even the kids came out!

It was great to see kids get into the singing… I think they’re singing about reindeer in this photo.

Elvis had a Blue Christmas and White Shoes????

Elvis show up, but he could only stay for 2 songs. Both songs were about a color…..I believe the colors were white and blue, yet Elvis wore red. I was slightly confused by this, but didn’t get a chance to ask him about this because we only chatted before he sang. He did tell me that many people pretend to be Elvis. We agreed that they are probably just Posers.

Santa then asked me to photograph him with some of his friends….

Here’s that photo:

Santa also mumbled something about being a “big fan of ACME” and something about our work in the 90’s…. but it was a little hard to hear with the music and his mouth 1/2 full of cookies. I just nodded and smiled.

Then came the flowers:

A Brownie Scout Troop came out as well:

After much sining the event was over…. I believe there were more goodies and snacks afterwards, but I had an apointment with my wife and kids for hot chocolate down the street. Maybe next year I’ll bring the family? Thanks to Jim, those who donated snacks, flowers and all who donated their time to get out and put smiles on faces of those who don’t always get to spend as much time with their families. It’s things like this that help make a great community.

~Adam Nollmeyer
Holiday Event Party Photography - Phoenix, Arizona

This image was created at a private party in Paradise Valley Arizona. I was hired to provide photography for this backyard house party. The special occasion was a 25th wedding anniversary and the client asked George Abrams, their meeting planner to find a photographer, I was the guy George found to take care of the photo needs.

The event was fun and planned very well.

*strobist lighting and technical info*
TWO sunpak 622 Strobes…
1) On the Right… 2/3’s down the length of the tables.
2) Camera left and maybe 20 ft “deep” into the photo

EXPOSURE(s) This image is actually a few exposures sandwiched together.
This is how the skyline is visible. The mountain is Camelback MT, in Phoenix.

Exposure range from 1/15th of a second to 20 seconds.

© Adam Nollmeyer - AcmePhotography.net
Party & Event Photography - Phoenix Arizona