Cory Ann shirt

I am very fortunate to not only have a job that I love, but to have a network of friends who also have the same job that they also love. One of these such people is Joe Mikos. Joe is a photographer on Martha's Vineyard who is wonderful. Not only as a photog, but as a businessman and most importantly as a husband and father. I've gotten to meet and hang out with the whole family and I love them all.

Joe is the one who brought me out here. Such an incredible compliment to be commissioned by another photographer. To be not only trusted but to have your work respected enough that they want to pay you for your time, talent and travel to fly half way around the country for you to create for them. I was humbled and nervous. Wow what a tall order to live up to.

More to come on the fam and you'll see more of Joe too, but here are some images of Lila and Clara wearing their "Cory Ann shirts" that I brought them, 3 nights in a row. They are so cute! I even got to get in on bedtime.

Hey Joe tell the girls I said hi and read the Clara Pete's a Pizza for me.
CA

Shoot with Beckstead in SD

On Monday and Tuesday we were fortunate enough to have David Beckstead here for one of his Shoot with Beckstead workshops. The workshop went very smoothly and I think all participants including myself took a lot from it.

Monday was full of shooting our two wonderful models Amanda and Maria. Tuesday was reserved for talking, critique and basically looking over the images.

Thank you to all of the photographers that came. It was great to see some of you again and to meet some of you for the first time. If anyone would like to get on a list to be notified of up coming workshops just drop me an e-mail. I hope to see everyone again soon. And a big thank you to David for making all the way out to SD we really do appreciate it!
Tim Larsen
Michelle Rudland
Eric Merrill
Tracey Vogel
David Bracho
Maria Lavallee
Raquel Leeper

Here are some image from me, check the links above for more from those photogs and Maria's in a few days. I'll try to get some behind the scenes images up with in the next few days.
CA

Amanda

Maria

eSATA

I'm a nerd, it's official. I think my new eSATA drives are super sexy in their sleek silver case. With their JBOD mounting and hot swappable drives....

Anyway. This is what I spent most of Wed doing. Downloading my files from my regular Firewire external drives to these eSATA drives. Much better way for me to store all of the amazing images I take each year. The firewire drives are now allocated to other computers and jobs, while these little guys are in charge of all client files, business documents and such. This is a quicker more user friendly method for me to store my files. The ability to hot swap my drives into the same case allows me to store multiple drives in other areas and not be daisy chaining all those externals together. Hopefully I'll also be able to use this new system to eliminate all of the dvd's I use as the second back-up (instead using extra drives).

I got my eSATA PCIx card from the wonderfully helpful people at Mac Gurus (who's eSATA burly units are also nice)
and the eSATA drives and unit are purchased from G-Technology. They are the same company I have used for a few years for my firewire drives.

Michelle Turner Seminars

I'm so excited to have another photographer come to SD to offer their seminars, it is nice and much more affordable to attend them in our own back yard. Michelle Turner a wedding photographer out of Maine. She does many destination weddings and her seminars focus on working with what you have. Ugly venue. Harsh Light and more. She will also talk about how she processes her images, will conduct mentor sessions and there will be shooting time.

She will be here: July 15-16, 2008 in Brookings, SD

To find out more about Michelle and the seminars go to her site at: Michelle Turner Seminars or her blog at: Michelle Turner Blog

Here are some of her fabulous images:

Templates are Live

It's official we are finally offering our templates for sale to other photographers. We have been asked for years to do this and it's a large undertaking so we didn't, but Erin worked her butt off and got many of our cards into template format. We hope to add more in the future as we make them.

They are not available to area photogs, sorry but we make many of these custom for our clients and they don't need to see their design used for their friend from another photog locally. We don't even reuse them until over a year after a custom design.

Follow this Link, or the one on the right of the blog to get to the shopping cart and place your order. We have both cards and our 2008 and 2009 calendars in there. The templates are easy to use and should give you a jump start on those grad announcements coming up, as well as all the other uses through out the year.

Enjoy.
CA

Rod Evans and Heather Kallhoff in Italy

South Dakota has some serious talent with it comes to photography and Sioux Falls based Rod Evans along with Watertown based Heather Kallhoff are no exception. After teaming up to teach at SPA last year they have announced their newest endeavor, Italy Art Escape. I'm tempted to go and experience this with them, but alas I don't think it's feasible at this time.

But for the rest of you, this is a workshop worth looking into you. I've hung out with and been photographed by Rod twice. I hope to someday call him a friend, in the meantime I will admire and respect his work and professionalism. He is an artist and has a lot to teach. He studies art and painting and brings so much to his photography.

Heather has been well respected for some time and my young mind when I started out thought of her as the enemy. What a fool I was. Now that I have corresponded with her a number of times and finally met her in person I think she's great and a good person. She was also a teacher prior to being a photographer and if she has the patience for teaching children with special needs imagine what she can do with driven photographers. She is smart, easy to talk with so full of ideas and has a big heart too.

So anyway they will be a great team who work well together, enjoy and study art and are capable of teaching. So think about it. More info can be found on their sites and blogs linked below.
CA


Heathers Blog

Evans Creativity

David Beckstead in SD

May 19-20 David Beckstead will be here in Brookings, SD for one of his Shoot with Beckstead Workshops. David was recently selected as one of the worlds Top 10 Wedding Photographers and we are fortunate to have him coming to South Dakota.

There will be instruction, critique and shooting time with some AC Ellis Brides as models. For outdoor locations we plan to shoot on a farm with prairie and possibly around the SDSU campus. We have a great alternate indoor location in the event of rain.

This workshop is open to everyone, yes even SD photographs. I hope to see many of you here. It's going to be a great time to learn from David and also to meet other photogs.

You can follow the links below to contact David and register for the workshop as well as see some posts and images on past workshops.

If you need anything from me let me know. If you are from out of the area you can fly into Sioux Falls, SD (FSD) and can rent a car or we can make a couple of trips to get you here. It is a short 45 min. drive on I-29 (at 75MPH). Once in Brookings the hotels are a short distance from my home and we can provide transportation to our home on the days of the seminar. If you decide to come in early we would love to have anyone over on Sunday or to stay late the following day. We can hang, talk shop, and all that good stuff.
CA

Shoot With Beckstead Blog

Shoot With Beckstead

I've been tagged

So I've been tagged in this little game of blog tag going around photogs. The fabulous Johnsons of Florida tagged me. And now I need to give 8 facts about myself on the blog and tag 8 others. So here goes:

1. I love my little boy! Never planned on being a mom. Actually never planned on being married. Then Andy came along and changed that. I remember telling my friend Misty he was marraige material. We got married and decided for me to go off the pill and to use the rhythm method. Umm yeah the rhythm method doesn't work when you get sick with influenza and your body holds onto your eggs. So yeah that would be Ayden, the result. The same weekend we got our tattoos which happen to be the ac ellis logo and Ayden initials. And I love my little boy even if I never planned him!

2. I used to be a jock, not an artsy drop in me. I lettered in 5 sports in one year in high school (soccer, softball, basketball, track and cross country) I also sat the bench in volleyball and tennis other years. In Junior College at Cosumnes River College in Sacramento I got all kinds of awards including making the regional team and that put me just a couple posititions out of All-American. I played goalkeeper. I have my degree in phys. ed with a concentration in coaching. I played soccer and softball in college, went to my undergrad on scholarship and have my coaching licences in soccer from the NSCAA and USSF.

3. Before my little honda civic I owned a Toyota 4x4 pick-up. It was a 91, dark grey and had a 7" lift kit. I used to love to take it out muddin'. It lasted me through grad school and now my little sister Magnum (yes a sister named Magnum, after the .357) owns it. Yeah I come from Hick stock.

4. My favorite furniture designers are Charles and Ray Eames. O I just love their chairs!

5. Chick flicks, I'm a sucker for chick flicks, no matter how poorly made. Save the last dance, Sweet Home Alabama, and stuff like that.

6. I had a horse growing up and while I haven't ridden in a long time I absolutely love to ride. Her name was Alibi.

7. My absolute favorite alcoholic drink is a blended Madori Sour. MMMMMM! I was a good kid in high school and never got drunk or partied. I got drunk for the first time my freshman year in college off tequila and now can't touch the stuff.

8. I served 8 years in the Army Reserve. I was qualified as a mechanic and as a paper pusher. I was only 1 shot away from qualifying as an expert with my M16, I had to settle for sharpshooter. I was an expert on grenades though.

Some great photogs and people, I tried to pick some that I haven't mentioned on here before:
Paul Gero
Britney Photography
Chuck Arland
Walters and Walters
Kim Gorombey
The Sandalls
Ute Muller
Nicole Polk

Since no post is complete with out an image:
My dad and Ayden in 2004. My dad is a commercial fisherman in CA and Ayden gets his middle name from him, Clyde.

NewsFire

There is the fun little thing that makes blogs so great... RSS Feeds. These feeds allow Feed Readers to update when a new post is made. It elimates the need to manually check each blog. It makes it easier to keep up with many blogs.

I usually only check a couple of blogs on a regular basis but after Randy Kepple recently told me he doesn't check up on mine enough because my RSS Feed wasn't working I decided to get it fixed. He said he used NewsFire to check and I remember liking the program when he showed me in OR. So I downloaded it. I liked it's interface, and although it does cost $25 I think that is a small price for a piece of software. Especially one you like. You just add all your feeds in and you can even catagorize them as well. NewsFire appears to only be for mac.

There are other readers like Google Reader that you can also use that are free. They are all a great way to keep track with out having to bookmark and manually look. Most of my blog are photogs. Mostly cause I have met them and like to see what's going on it their lives - like reality tv. But also I have others that I enjoy and seem to be adding to my list now that I have an easy way of checking.

I'd love to hear some recommendations for good blogs you may read.
CA

700

Who needs a man...

...when you have a camera?

I shoot Nikon and in the photog world especially with weddings and portraits it seems the majority of the shooters are Canon. Many will say Canon is superior, but I like my Nikon files and I like the ergonomics of the Nikon so I've stuck with it. Well my stubbornness has paid off as Nikon has just announced this bad boy. Man it's sexy and I'm drooling. I so want one.
CA
Nikon D3

Erin thought up the title, you like?

Dashboard Stickies

I've had Mac computers the entire time I've been a photographer. I switched from the PC world to Mac and haven't looked back. While I did have issues converting - couldn't figure out how to open the DVD drive- I have made the transition well. I love the interface and now I could never go back.

Well I'm still finding new things 4 years later... Dashboard. I've been using it a lot, it holds my calculator, dictionary, thesaurus, weather, calendar and measurement converter (love this one). But is also holds my stickie notes. This is good cause I'm a list and note maker and I just recently realized that this is a great way to quit using so many stickies and notepads and to get them off my desk.

I'm always looking for ways to be more green and this is just one more little step. I'll try to post some other steps we take in the office to reduce our waste, usage and lower our footprint. Thanks to the Phototechnology Blog for bring up the green factor, I hadn't thought of sharing what we do before.
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The Traveling Shovel

Well us photogs are a strange group. Well not all of us, but the good ones, he he. Anyway there is this neat endeavor that is happening and I plan on following it and being a part of it. If you would like another blog type of site to check regularly this would be a good one. This is going to be incredibly challenging for each photographer to come up with something unique to do with an inanimate object. The shovel was originally owned by the wonderful John Michael Cooper with the current owner being the talented and creative Rita and Joel Wiebner who spearheaded this project. Anyway enough of that read more about it and follow The Traveling Shovel here.

I don't know when I will get it, but darn the pressure is on to do something amazing.

Wedfog

Most couples have never worked with or hired a professional photographer before and they are often at a loss as to how to research and select a photographer for their wedding. With the influx of photographers entering the market for the last couple of years it makes it even more difficult. Well now there is something to help you all out.

A large group of photographers has come together to answer the most commonly asked questions about wedding photography. Yours truely was one of the many contributors. You will find answers about hiring, the wedding day and what to expect after the wedding. This is a very comprehensive collection of information and since it's coming from a variety of photographers from all over the world and in particular the US you aren't getting second hand information from unrealiable sources.

Don't hesitate to pass this information along to all your engaged friends.

Clear the fog at Wedfog

And since you know I'm all about education you can always find this linked from this blog.... just look to the right.
CA

Note: New photogs, you can use this information as a guideline for what should be expected of you. Like back-up equipement, insurance, etc. And there are sample contracts and price lists too.

How I keep my cards straight on a shoot

I take a lot of images while I'm on a shoot, weather it be a portrait session or a wedding. So I always carry a lot of CF Cards with me. To a wedding I take over 35Gigs with me on a portrait session much less. My cards are a variety of cards from 1GB-4GB Sandisk, Lexar and Kingston.

What I do to keep them straight is I number them 1-whatever on the back I also put my phone number, reward and www.acellis.com. I do all of this to be able to keep track and if something tragic did happen and I lost one hopefully then someone would be honest enough to return it to me. I always strart at a different number so that they get close to the same amount of use.

The cards are then put into a Think Tank Pixel Pocket Rocket purchased from Roberts Imaging. I put all the cards in sequentially with the number side facing up. As I fill a card it goes back in the case with the front of the card (the side that has none of my written numbers on it) facing up. Here is an image of the case with three cards looking like they are used. The case does close with velcro, so if using at a wedding prior to the ceremony I make sure the velcro flap is folded over in the event I need to change cards I don't make noise. But typically I'm putting a new cards right before hand so that I don't run out at a key moment. And I never use a card that I can see the front of!

Another card tip to some newbies out there, if you accidentally reformat your card before downloading the data, stop using the card, do not continue to take images on it. Remove the card from the camera and set it aside as used there is a bunch of software out there to recover the images, they aren't really lost until you write over them again. No I haven't ever accidentally reformatted my card. I just know from talking with other photogs.
CA

Heather is so smart... Lightroom

I have this photog friend in PA, her name is Heather and she is one of the smartest women I know. Well she's also a geek and so she went to Photoshop World recently. She came back all excited about Adobe Lightroom. I had been running CS2 for Photoshop and using Bridge and ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) to edit and process images, but then I downloaded and started working with the CS3 beta. Unfortunately Bridge has been quiting on me about 5 times a day minimum and was seriously slowing down my workflow. So I decided to give Lightroom a try, and I'm lovin' it. Heather is awesome she walked me through getting started and now I cannot believe how little I need to open Photoshop to do the basics to my files. I think this is one program I'm giong to be using daily. So if you need a new editing tool test this out. They have a trial for free for 30 days and it's also currently on sale.

One thing I really love is pulling up multiples of the same image to look at side by side. This is very time saving as far as formals and portraits go to pick the best of the bunch. Here is an image of Lightroom open or the Cinema Displays (which the price just dropped on).

And of course she knows all the short cuts so I had to take notes to learn them.

(PRODUCT) RED

Today FedEx brought me a little something. This beautiful piece of technology. A Red iPod Nano. It is so small it's almost as small as the apple remotes. My hubby keeps stealing my iPod Video for the speaker system upstairs so I decided to pick up a Nano and what better than a distinctive Red one to match my distinctive style. I'll be filling it with music but also tons of images, it's a great way to show off your work when you run into someone when your out and about. I wish I could get one in each color - you know the new accessory of the season.

In case you haven't heard (PRODUCT) RED is a movement where the consumer can choose to purchase products and services from (PRODUCT) RED partners. A portion of the proceeds from the purchase of these products and services go to fight AIDS. Some of my favorites (PRODUCT) RED products are the Apple Nano of course and the GAP clothing. The marketing genius behind them just inspires me. The words on the shirts all contain the word red with in a larger word, Examples: Inspi(red), Admi(red), Cente(red), and Treasu(red). I wish I had come up with something like this. It actually reminds me of a photographer in Cali with an equally ingenius marketing scheme, Becker. If your a photog it's worth checking out.

Ok back to the goods.
CA

Some songs I'm currently rockin' out too, look for more every now and then:
note: the title of the song link goes directly to the iTunes store, so if you don't have iTunes go and download it for free on Mac or PC. The musician link goes to their website.

Drunk is Better Than Dead, The Push Stars
Love Addict, Family Force 5
Keepin It Real, Mason Jennings

Just looking pretty waiting to be opened.

Look for (PRODUCT) RED

Opening...

Get free engraving when you order at the Apple Store.

How I organize my image files

Every year I take more and more images. 2005 I think it was around 70K and 2006 was over 100K. When you start out you often don't realize how important it is to start a system for archiving your images. Many things I found recommend using dates to archive and while I found this at least a sane method it didn't fit the way my mind works. So here is my method, hopefully someone can find it useful.

Naming the image files:
1. Each client/event is given a client number when they are photographed, these are assigned sequentially. So if your a new client today you would be 218.

2. Each session/event is given a 2-digit number. So if this is your first session with me it would be 01, your second 02 and so on.

3. Last each image is assigned a number. If the client is given 99 images or less it is two digits, if they are given 999 or less it is three digits and if they are given 9999 or less it is four digits.

The result is an image number like this 21801001. And here is a screen capture of a bunch of image files.

Storing and easy reference of the files:
Now comes to storing these images. Each client has a folder. The folders are located on my computer hard drive if they aren't done being edited and backed up and/or on my back-up/external drives. If you were to open a client hard drive you would see a long list of client folders. Like this screen capture.

Now lets open one of those folders. Let's take client 18. Inside you will find all their sessions. Each session has it's own folder. For a first time client I often don't create these subfolders, but do once a cleint has more than one session. You will also find these three other folders.
-Retouched images are often those that I prepare for the blog. And in the event they are ordered I want to have them already ready. No reason to retouch again.
- Ordered, this file is used for images ordered by the client. Some are sized if the ordering system requires that, but typically since I use a ROES ordering system through my lab they aren't sized. But they are set aside because clients don't remember what they ordered, but do need to reorder occassionally. This is an easy way to find the right image. Of course the orders are saved, but that will be another post and doesn't always answer the question.
- Graphics, this is where cards, composites, albums and books are stored.

You will notice each folder has the clients number first. I do this because if a folder is accidentally moved you won't mistake if for another clients. Here you can see inside of a session folder.
- Originals are only when I'm just doing a first back-up, they are the RAW files completely unedited. These are not renamed in the above system, they are mererly put in an order and renamed sequentially. They aren't renamed because the client doesn't see them and the image is never referenced and because they are discarded after the final edit is done.
- Edited RAW are just that the edited RAW files they come from the originals. These files are renamed with the system I described above. They are not renamed until this point in the process.
- Hi-Res are the JPG copies of that match the Edited RAW
This image shows client 163. They have an 01 session which is the engagement, and 02 session which is the wedding and an 03 session which is the couture/after session. You will notice that there are still Originals in the 02. I stuck that there to show you what it would look like before I purged those files, which are purged from the archive right after the Edited RAW are complete and backed-up.

After the files are done being edited and archived on the external G Tech hard drives they are also burned to disk with Toast for storage back-up. We do this because it's not a matter of if a hard drive will fail but of when. What we use are Meritline cases. They each hold aver 500 disks in a hanging file type of system. As disks are created they are filed in the next open location. The location of the disk is entered into our File Maker system so if we do need it is easily referenced. Here is the case:

And the file maker system, not pretty, but functional:

I guarantee to my clients that wedding files are stored for a period of one-year from the wedding after that they are purged. Portraits are purged after about 3-6 months depending on when I need and have time to clean out he hard drives. We can purge from both the archive and the back-up system. The archive system (disks) is purged more often, while the back-up system (hard drives) is often left in tact.

The last bit is the client number reference. Currently this is in an Excel spreadsheet, but will hopefully soon be in a File Maker file that we can cross referenced.

So I'm a bit of an organizational nut. I need things in order in order. And organization typically means increased productivity. I hate not knowing where things are so we are doing a lot of revamping around here to make it all just right. It changes as we grow. Can you tell this week is a spring cleaning? Need to get ready for all the upcoming weddings. Stay tuned for more organizing and other tips.
CA

Pelican Cases

I've tried a number of cases and none ever seemed just right. Especially as my equipment collection grew. What I use now and love are my Pelican Cases. They are very sturdy, water tight and well padded. They fit an incredible amount of stuff. I own three different sizes, but my two smaller 1514 cases get the most use. One holds all my lenses and two bodies and the other holds two more bodies a back-up 50 1.4 and tons of extras such as batteries, lights, flashes etc. If I weren't such a lens whore I'm sure I could fit everything into one. And if I had a destination wedding (which I do this year and next) I do plan to fit everything I need into one. Plus a perk they are safe to check and I like that they are hard cases so I don't worry about my equipment getting damaged. And they are small enough for a carry-on.

I order my cases along with just about all of my equipment from Ed at Roberts Imaging. I know their site is ugly, but I've actually been in their store when I lived in IN and they are great people, with great service and always seem to price match the other popular companies.

PS. These work great as a regular luggage for clothes and such.
CA

Copyright vs. Reproduction Rights: Explained

This subject is a hard one to grasp both for photographers and for customers. Many photographers don't completely understand it and so I thought I would give an explanation for everyone. This is long and boring but READ IT!

Copyright and Reproduction Rights are different. All a client needs is a reproduction release and a photographer should be very leery about relinquishing their copyright but in my opinion release reproduction rights is no big deal. Read on to learn why I feel this way. Everyone should know that just because you purchase a print it does not give you any rights over the image, just the print.

COPYRIGHT:
According to the US Copyright website, "Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States to the authors of "original works of authorship." including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic and certain other intellectual works. This protection is for both published and unpublished works..."

Copyright is granted to the author the moment the work is created it does not need to be registered or bear a copyright symbol or notice. Ignorance on this is not a form of defense.

What this all comes down to is that for a photographer (the author of an image) you own your images. So while you may be hiring a photographer to create images for you, the actual image rights belong to the photog. Another context to put it in is painting. Let's say you purchase a lovely painting, it's even the original signed by the artist. You would in fact own the painting, but not the rights to it. The rights to the work maintain those of the author for a period of 70 years after their death or until the rights are sold.

The rights granted to the author (or purchaser) as protected by US Copyright law are:

- To reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords;

- To distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;

- To display the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work; and

So those are the basics. For photographers it is wise to not release your copyright. If you do the person whom you released them to could not only reproduce them at will, but could sell them for money (ie stock images) and they could sue you for your reproduction of them. You wouldn't even be able to make them a print with out their written permission.

For the customer this means you may NOT scan them, photocopy them, or anything. You may not put them on your website, on your facebook or myspace, you may not produce your own cards, you may not ask another company to produce those cards with those images. What you may do is look at the beautiful products that you purchased. You paid your photographer for the image in that product form not the rights to the image.

REPRODUCTION RIGHTS:
I understand the desire to have rights to your images. Some want them more for safety and security, some because they like to scrap or want to do something themselves, and some to save money on prints, either way I get it. That is where reproduction rights come in. Every photographer has a different release, but you would receive a written release allowing you the rights to reproduce the images. This is all the typical client needs or really wants.

I offer my clients options and because of this I see absolutely no reason other than dishonesty for my clients to violate copyright laws and steal from me. I would love to simply charge enough for a portrait session to hand over the files, but most of you won't pay that much upfront so I don't. For weddings this is exactly what I do. You pay a premium for my time and you get a disk as part of the coverage. I don't like to nickel and dime on small prints, but do want you to purchase the large ones through me for quality purposes and I want you to have your images. And in reality I'm not that expensive and I don't use high-pressure sales so there is no reason to steal from me. I don’t go to your work and steal from you.

What is in my reproduction release: Well I'd link it, but I don't want dishonest people forging my signature. If your a photog and would like to see it e-mail and I'll send it to you so you can create your own. But basically it states that you are allowed to reproduce the images for personal use. I maintain the rights, and you are not allowed to sell the images. You can make cards, prints, books, slideshows or whatever you want as long as you are doing it. You cannot hand that release over to another professional and pay them to make/design products for you, you can pay a print to print your creations.

I will furnish you with the digital files of the images for different uses and a written release legally allowing you to reproduce them. I furnish you with digital files because scans are bad reproductions. DO NOT EVER SCAN A PRINT from me unless you want to make me mad!

Here are your options:

- proof disk of all images with a logo on them, this is for you to use to e-mail, post on your websites and slideshows.
- single image one-time use for things like cards and announcements.
- single image unlimited use for that image that you would like to print into 100 4x6's to distribute.
- small print disk of all images unlimited use. These images are printable to 4x6
- large print disk of all images unlimited use. These images are printable to 11x14

And until March 23 only I will offer 40% off either the small print or large print disk to all of my customers. This is a wonderful opportunity. Only valid as an a la carte product. E-mail or call if you are interested.

I do my best to educate my clients so that there is no reason to claim ignorance. Copyright and violation of it are addressed in my agreements, the terms and conditions you agree to on the shopping cart, there is a copyright sticker and it's printed on the reverse of each print or card, and in each product order there is a card informing you once again on copyright. The copyright site has always been linked from the blog and there has always been a copyright statement on the bottom of my website.

You will notice on my agreements that there is an area that covers all of this. You will also notice that you will be charged for each image I catch you reproducing/stealing. I protect myself not only by registering my images Federally, but by also making it a contractual agreement. I recommend you understand this and photogs I recommend you do this. I will also prosecute those businesses that illegally reproduce my images so word to you, do the honest legal thing and ask for a release. And a shout out to Paperwerks in Sioux Falls who recently required a release and I'm so glad they did or I would not have known of the reproduction of some of my images.

If you would like more information on this subject please go to the US Copyright website

Thanks for reading trying to learn and being well informed educated clients and photographers. I would love feedback from those that actually took the time to read this. Do you understand, think I'm nuts, more confused, etc. If any of you teach photography, art or design type courses at your local schools or colleges I would be happy to come and speak about this. I do have a background in education and value it greatly.
CA

Theft - I will not tolerate it!

I know some think I'm paranoid when I post new things I've done and add a little statement reminding other photogs to do their own thing. Well, I'm not. I have reason to be cautious.

I have only been in business 3 years and so far I have had another SD photog show one of my images on their site as their own, another move in four doors down the hall, another mimick my marketing key words, one who is aspiring is continually replicating my images (poses, cropping and locations), one has taken my card designed put the design elements on her images and is taking credit as her creation. While these are mostly more subtle- I'm sick of it. If you are going to be marketing yourself as a creative professional do not claim the creativity of others as your own. It's a lie, it's not fair to the other photog and it's not fair to your client who is now thinking you can produce that work.

I do think it's ok to try to replicate what others do. It's a process of learning, but please keep this work to yourself to study, do not show it as your own, do not promote your business with it. If you do and I know I will be taking action, I do have proof of all of the above (screen captures and the like). If what you are doing is illegal I will look into legal action, if it's merely a matter of ethics I will be posting about it and letting the local community know that you are a fraud and do not respect the creativity of others. Sound fair? I think so.

While out of the state photographing 3 wonderful couples and two great families it was brought to my attention that another photographer in TN had stolen my card designs. So much so that my images where still in them. They weren't replicated they were directly stolen. If you look at the screen captures I have included you can see on the left side a thin dark strip, the location of what once was my logo bar and name and copyright, if you look here you can see how my cards are proofed, the logo bar is on all of them. Angelika Greer of Life Memories Online has stolen many of my card designs, my images and it was blatant as the copyright was removed and it is unacceptable!

Four other photographers have been identified as having their images stole as well Matt Radlinski, Ute Mueller, Teddi and Keith Maul, and Melisa McKolay. Angelika even took card designs that featured mine and Melisa's chidren. So that is a violation of model release.

Angelika has removed all of the images from her site so none of my customers will need to pursue action for a lack of model release, be sure that if you did I would have your back and would be pursuing it for you. But I along with the other photogs are doing what we can to make this issue come to light. Local newspapers and television stations have been contacted, it is posted on professional forums, other photographers have been notified as well as other vendors, it has been legally addressed by the PPA and the local authorities have been contacted about fraud charges. It is our intention to make an example of her to show that the photography community will not tolerate stealing from each other. Hopefully the outcome will be a revoking of her business license for operating fraudulently and that if that doesn't come through enough locals will know of her reputation that she will not work again.

In case any of you are reading this far images are copyrighted the moment they are created. The copyright belongs to the creator. Therefore, every image I take belongs to me. Since I own the copyright I have full control over how it is reproduced (scanned, photographed, printed, etc). As for designs, they are also copyrighted, while text, elements and words aren't copyrighted (although may be trade or service marked) the arrangement of them is. So all of my card designs are copyrighted by me. Poses, locations, lighting aren't copyrighted, but really just try to find your own style, it's better for all of us if you do.

If your steal from other photogs you are typically hurting them little, but you are hurting the industry and you are hurting your clients who think you are capable of creating the work you are showing. Please be honest!

Here are the screen captures of the stolen cards and images that belonged to us. These are mostly mine, those that aren't are noted. Go to Matt's blog to see all the wonderful album layouts she stole from him.

Grad cards. When you enlarge the top one you can even see www.acellis.com in the lower left corner still.

Christmas Cards. The bottom right card belongs to Melisa McKolay it was her personal holiday card.

Birth Announcements. The bottom left corner belongs to Ute Mueller.

Save-the-dates.

And info page

the bottom of it.

And thank you cards.

A close up of Emily's grad card you can see a bit of the acellis in the lower left.

Print Crop Factor: Explained

It's that time of year again. Time to rethink and revamp. So I'm starting with prints.

When we think of prints we often think of the sizes that frames have typically come in. 4x6, 5x7, 8x10, 11x14 and 16x20. I assume most of these sizes came from the days of medium format cameras. And for some reason instead of the frame companies adapting to the 35mm format or 2:3 ratio of todays images, we have had to resort to cropping out part of the image in order to fit it in the frame.

Crop factor can be hard to understand and explain, but I'm going to do my best to try and make it clear. An image from my camera comes in a 2:3 ration. Meaning that if one side is divisable by 2 the other is divisable by 3. So an uncropped (uncut) image out of my camera (and other 35mm cameras) comes in 4x6, 6x9, 8x12, 10x15, 12x18, 16x24, 20x30, and 30x45. If you order any variation of these sizes part of the image must be cropped off. So yes that ever popular 8x10 you all love is missing a full 2" of the image. This is why when you see some of your group images there seems to be a lot of space around- that's me leaving room for your size requests.

Why would you want that to happen, at least on one of my artful images? I consider myself an artist and just like a painter what is in the image is chosen by me. There is usually a reason an element is included and why crop it off. Likewise some are cropped for reason. Sometimes it can't be helped but usually it's all something I'm deciding on when creating the image.

Here are some examples, the shaded area of the image is the area that will be cropped off, and let me tell you, those areas sure do make the image better...:

An original uncropped 2:3 ratio image:

Same image 5x7 crop:

Same image 8x10 crop:

Same image 11x14 crop:

Same image 16x20 crop:

So now I would like to introduce the new print pricing/ordering structure. I've been wanting to do this for a while as it just makes sense for me and I've finally got the time and figured it out. It will save me trying to list every possible print size and you asking for a size not listed. I think it's simpler and I hope you will also.

All prints will now by priced by the longest side of the image. All prints with a side 14" or longer will only be sold "Deluxe" which is mounted, sprayed and textured. Although the texture may be left off upon request and will be left off metallic prints.

When referencing the new rate sheet first you will need to decide the size of the image you want, then find it's longest size on the list, if it's exact size is not listed you will need to select the next higher size. So for a 20x30 inch print you would need to find the 30" rates. You can select Deluxe or Deluxe Metallic.

It's still the customer appreciation season so for the 1 (my old keeper number), 4 (ayden's age), 12 (my favorite number), 16 (my birthday), and 25 (and how old I wish I was) e-mails I receive referencing this blog. Send an e-mail to contest@acellis.com and I will send you a print with a side of a minimum of 20" cause I think big prints rock and so do you!
CA

Resources

I have recently added a new section on the blog here. I think it will benefit both my clients and other photographers. For some time I have been making this information available through e-mail to prospective and current clients. Now I'm just going to make it easier for you all to get to. I will be adding more as time goes on - don't want to give away all my stuff at once you know.

Clients,
I hope that you find this makes things easier. In case you loose that e-mail, well now you know where to look.

Photogs,
If you are looking to do your own FAQ, Tips, Education, etc. Feel free to look on the side and use mine a beginning point for yours. I will be adding more of my stuff as time goes on so you may want to check back occasionally. It takes time, and in some cases money to pay for legal consultation (agreements that may be added later need to be approved by a lawyer) to compile some of this. I think it's important for us all to share, but I think it is also important for us to be thankful to those that have shared after all they are saving us time and money to come up with it all on our own. Please if you use my resourses drop me a line, let me know it helped. It's little things like that that make me want to do it more. And as always if your in my area, darn it do your own thing!

Enjoy.
CA

Print Costs: Explained

I often hear about the competitions print prices being too high. Well I usually stand up for them as first we need to compare the same products. It is not merely a piece of paper you are purchasing. I know this is hard to understand. It took me a while to understand it. It's especially hard to understand that when Harold's offers $.19 4x6 prints and professional start anywhere from $10-$80 for the same size.

So I thought I would help you make sense of why and then maybe you would better understand the process of pricing. This is both for photographers and for my customers. As I think education is at the root of understanding. If you are a new photographer and are struggling with understanding the pricing give me a call and I'd be happy to help with the basics. I also offer private consultations.

Let's compare costs and services:

Harold's, Walmart and the like:
Employee pay: around $6 to $7 per hour (guessing)
Their material costs:
- Paper and the machines

Their process:
Kiosk for you to place your own order
They put the images in an envelope
They ring you up and you are forever gone.

AC Ellis Photography:
Employee pay: around $8 to $15 per hour
My material costs:
- The print from my lab, which by the way is on professional paper and costs me more, way more than you pay at Harold's
- The image is sprayed for protection
- Larger prints are mounted and textured
- Machines, computer to color correct and to order the prints
- Some photographers do even more than I do.

My process:
- Take order, either through our custom cart, in person, or over the phone.
- Enter the order into our accounting system
- Process the payment, sometime remind someone to pay who forgot to send it in. Reference credits in your collections etc.
- Pull image from achives
- Optimize and Retouch the image
- Order Image
- Receive order from lab, check order
- Package the order ( not just an envelope like these stores. Our packaging protects your images in transit)
- Mail or deliver the order: mailing means more packaging, delivering means more time.
- Follow up: We reprint it if you don't like something.

So basically you are not simply paying for a piece of paper, but the time and talent we use to make your image better. And we spend the time to make things right. Just like your time is worth something in your chosen career so is ours. If we only charged the hard cost of the item and never for our time we would not make any money and mind as well take a job elsewhere. Hope that makes sense.

However I do understand that costs can add up so I do offer your proof disks for sale or in wedding collections. Part of me doesn't like doing it as I would love you to have the best possible image printed and not merely your proof, but I also understand that many of you want that disk and I want to make you happy and of course the images are still great with out the pump.

And to show you the difference between a print from your proofs and our special touch here are some examples. Sometimes