How do you get $25 off your session fee?

“Like” the Danielle Neil Photography Facebook page prior to your session and take $25 off your portrait session fee!

How do you find me on Facebook?
Simple, log on to your profile and search for: Danielle Neil Photography (or just click on the link)

Once there you can:
• Join our network and invite your friends to join
• View some of your images after the session … a sneak peek before your gallery goes online
• Share some of your images with friends and family!

Let Danielle know when you’re scheduling that you are on her Facebook network and she’ll send you a code for the $25 discount on your session!

Thanks for following and looking forward to seeing you soon!!

I’d like to thank Cristy & Yolanda for sharing this great article with fellow photographers. I know clients would prefer to not have watermarks on their proofs, sneak peeks and Facebook images, but there are a few reason for it. These two wonderful women are much better writers than I, so I’ll let them explain the details …

Why Are Professional Photographs Watermarked?

by Cristy Nielsen & Yolanda Rowe

As parents, we do everything we can to protect our children. We teach them to look both ways before crossing the street and many other ways to be safe. Photographers have the same responsibility to their work. Each photograph is important–not just because they are our livelihood but because they are portraits of special people: our clients. To protect our work and our clients, we watermark every image that appears online. We hope to discourage unethical people who steal from photographers by copying and using images for their purposes without authorization or compensating the copyright owner and subjects.

­For example, let’s say your photographer posts preview images on a social networking site such as Facebook or Myspace.  These photos are intended to show the client a preview of what their session images will look like.  If they are not watermarked they cannot be identified back to the photographer who created the image and they could be stolen by a third party and used without permission.  This has happened on numerous occasions by companies who will use photographs for their marketing campaigns and then photographers or their clients have found their images and photos on the sides of buses, on billboards, etc.  Imagine finding a photo of you or your child on a flyer or website for some random company when you didn’t give permission for it to be used in that way and you will begin to understand why photographers watermark to protect their work.

Federal law is very clear on the copyright of images.  The creator of the image (the photographer) is the owner of those rights.  A client pays the photographer to take those images, but it does not give them ownership (rights) to what is created.  Even if the client purchases a file or print it does not give the client copyright to the image.  They are given a license to do certain things. This is called a Usage License and it is illegal to scan or copy it and use it in any way other than which it was intended: displaying the print itself. Even purchasing prints does not give the client copyright to the image and it is illegal to alter, scan, or copy it and use it in a way other than its intent.  Copyright is held by the image creator for 70 years by law and infringement is punishable by up to $150,000 in fines PER image.

While it may seem like no big deal to make additional copies of an image, or crop out watermarks in web versions of photos, truly it is a big deal.  A photographer works very hard on their images, and this is their livelihood, source of income and how they feed their family.  When you copy and scan or alter watermarks out of images you are taking part of the income that they depend on to stay in business and serve their clients in the first place.  Watermarking is a necessary evil to protect photographers, to protect their work and their job security.  As Yolanda says “Copyright is like your vehicle. You can give someone the keys to drive it (granting permission to a client) but it doesn’t make them the owner of the vehicle.”

For more information on copyright please visit http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright

I’ve been a bad blogger lately. I’ve been so busy working all the fun business stuff, including marketing, finding new products and an online client site in an effort to reduce paper and go green, that I’ve neglected the blog! I’m currently scheduling sessions for April and May, which are filling up fast. If you are considering booking a spring portrait session for your child, family or pet, be sure to contact me soon. I’m also starting to book 2011 high school senior photos. And for any of 2010 seniors who haven’t had their portraits taken yet, you still have time to get those in! As for me, I’ll be sure to get better about the blogging in the next few months as I’ll have quite a few sneak peeks from sessions to share!

Since no blog post is complete without a photo, here’s one of my other child, Muffin. He’s not a big fan of posing for me, but I was able to snap a few of him before he was completely uninterested in the process.

I had the chance last week to attend the OneLight workshop with Atlanta Music photographer Zack Arias. It was a long day (9:30 am till after midnight!) and I walked out with a wealth of information. I’ve been following Zack’s blog for the last year or so and when I saw he was offering a workshop in Columbus, I knew I had to go. His workshop is all about showing photographers how to work with one off camera flash to achieve amazing lighting no matter where the location. I typically shoot 100% natural light, so what I’ve learned will really add to the options I can offer my clients.

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Here’s two shots of Zack in action at the workshop.

We had the opportunity to work with some great local models and walked around the Short North to find some interesting locations. Our models for the workshop were brave souls to be hitting the chilly streets with us as the sun was setting and well after dark. February in Ohio isn’t necessary the warmest time of year! Here’s just a few of the images I captured during the workshop.

Next up are two images of Tracey and I think I can say that everyone attending the workshop was blown away with her strength and amazing yoga skills. I was able to talk with her during one of the breaks and we quickly realized that we both grew up in the Youngstown area. I also found out that she teaches an endurance yoga class in New Albany. After seeing her combination of strength and grace, I was sold me on signing up for her classes. So if you’re in the Columbus area and you’re looking for a new workout, you really need to check the Tracey Gardner Method, but be warned, it’s not your typical yoga class!! Her classes are not stretching classes, she bases her yoga on strength, endurance and stamina.

I’m really looking forward to learning more about using Zack’s system and being able to offer more variety to my clients in their upcoming sessions! And for the other  photographers that stop by my blog, if you have a chance to attend the OneLight workshop, I highly recommend it!!