You get me

Exploitation for fun

I belong to a fantastic and massive photography community called flickr. Ive been apart of this community for just under a year..and what a year its been..the best ride of my life!!
But recently..what was a wonderful exciting experience has turned into a nightmare for some of my contacts and their friends.
There is a website owned by google called www.orkut.com,kinda like a myspace style site. Apparently its all the rage in Brazil to steal photos of children from flickr and other places and make 'fake' profiles on orkut with albums full of these childrens pictures.
What they are doing is theft...these photos are protected by copyright laws. No matter what they think. A little green box and the words 'this photo is public' does not mean it is free for your to take.

Click the photo for the original story

Now,photographers all over the world are having to take a stand against this blatant disregard for other peoples property..the stealing of photos is wrong..it is as much a crime as breaking into someones house and stealing their property.
Trying to make a bunch of brazilian teenagers who couldnt give a crap about it is another story entirely...some dont believe that the photos are yours or that you know the people whose photos they are and want proof...proof...why should we have to prove anything to them..they stole our photos..they are the ones in the wrong..not us!! Although,they would have you believe that you are. More than i once ive been faced with the responce "you put your photos there,if you didnt want to have them taken you shouldnt of put them on flickr. Its your fault for putting them there." Really? Well personally i dont see it like that. For some strange reason,i didnt foresee a bunch of stupid teenagers in brazil setting up hundreds of 'fake' profiles with images of little children stolen from flickr. Maybe thats just me...
Other people you ask to remove the photos merely say "no" and leave it at that but the best responce of all is surely "why? you should be proud of your children,they are famous in brazil"
Somehow..that really just doesnt make me feel any better!!

I must admit..me ranting and raving like i am is probably going to be the most annoying thing to some people..personally...i havent been affected by this terrible thing. I havent got any chidren so no photos can be stolen from me..i feel its unlikely that they would anyway..but that defeats the object. Maybe me and my high horse will annoy people who have been affected but at the end of the day...i feel sick to my stomach by what is happening. Flickr has been such an inspiration and joy for me..the positive feedback and wonderful people have given me a new
Now,that world is threatened and it makes me sad,angry,annoyed...maybe even slightly selfish..but surely that is my right...like its the right of mothers & fathers all over flickr to display images of their children and their work without fear it will be stolen and placed somewhere else illegally. We all need to take a stand and let google and these people know that we wont sit back any longer...visit the site...if you have a flickr account,leave a comment on the image..fave it..leave a note and support the cause. AND....dont gorget to sign the petition!! lease on life recently. Ive always enjoyed and loved photography but never took the leap into it until recently but since doing so..i have never been happier. Flickr is a constant inspiration and world of wonder with people from all over the world sharing their lives and knowledge with others.

There is some happiness

Despite the tragedy in our lives at the moment..there is at least something to look forward to. The beautiful face of my niece Lola. Im so grateful that my grandad got to meet him and she brought some new joy into his life for the short time she has been alive. She loved to sit with him and be around him. The weekend before he died we took Lola to visit him and got the last pictures ever taken of him. Im so thankful for that!
Lola is so much like her dad,my brother..its amazing to look back at pictures of my brother when he was a baby and see such similarities between the 2 of them.
Quite often Lola and Ty come to stay at my parents house for the night at the weekend and i get to spend hours with them. Ty loves watching his films and last weekend we all watched Fantastic Four:Rise of the Silver Surfer. It was a good film..i never saw the first one though but still enjoyed it and Ty explain things about the film to me : )
I got to take a couple of photos of Lola,which is always fun. Especially with Lola..her expressions crack me up all the time and she is always happy and willing to give you a smile.

I editted in ACR using Marina's awesome underground settings again...i just cant get enough of her work and her settings are just out of this world..they really make you think outside the box when it comes to editting.

Happy Birthday

It was my dad's birthday yesterday..September 15th..hes reached the grand age of 57 :)
We tried to make the day at least a little happy but it is hard to be excited about it when my dads dad just passed away on Tuesday,he wasnt really in the mood for celebrating. I did however get a couple of minutes of his time to take some photographs. He was sat out in the back garden in lovely sunshine..but he was sat right in the sun and wouldnt move into the shade for me..coz he was warm in the sun..

Despite the fact that he was sat directly in the sun and therefore squinting alittle bit..i still like the shots,its rare for me to get my dad in front of the camera so i was pretty happy that he was willing to sit there and let me take a couple of photos.
And..hes wearing the shirt i bought him for i think fathers day..which im happy about coz i was pretty sure he wouldnt like it..its dark brown with pink stripes..i think it looks cool and is more modern than most of his clothes..but he liked it..and he wears it..yay!

Please help if you can

My grandad was diagnosed with lung cancer just a couple of months ago and sadly lost his battle on September 11th 07. He was looked after for the last few weeks of his life by the wonderful Doctors,Nurses and Volunteers at St Michael's Hospice in Herefordshire. It was a beautiful place and despite its nature was a place of pure love and joy. The Nurses who looked after my grandad were angels who were never too busy to even make him a cup of tea or sit with him for a short while so he wasnt alone.

St Michael's Hospice is a 16-bed inpatient centre and day hospice. They rely on donations to stay open,costing £6,680 ADAY!! 85% of this money is raised through funding alone.
As a result of loosing my Grandad,my sister in law..Lucy Rumsey has decided to take part in a fundraising event for the hospice called The Venus Challenge. The Venus Challenge is a 10k walk at midnight through Hereford town.
Please help if you can..give as little or as much as you can afford and help raise money for a wonderful place..in the name of Francis George Benjamin Morris 22.1.1930 - 11.9.2007

The Swans

While im still around i thought i would post a couple of photos from my last trip to the river. As i was walking along i saw 2 swans across the river and decided to climb down the bank to the waters edge to get in line with them and get a couple of shots. As soon as i got down to the waters edge the swans sensed me and started to swim over from the other side...towards me. The closers they got the more noise they started to make and i decided to snap a couple of shots before i ran back up the bank...a swan can break a mans..or womans...arm you know : )
I felt abit guilty because i figure they must have signets around and thats why they reacted the way they did..in order to protect their babies...but i just had to try and get a couple of shots. I think they turned out pretty well!

I love the first shot the most,im so pleased i managed to get that. The 2nd one is not as good but the only one i managed to get with both of them in. Edited in ACR.

Abit more manual practice

Ive been in a funk for the last couple of weeks really...with my grandad being so ill ive done nothing but focus on him and finding a job. Im still in a funk and i havent really felt like going out and photographing anything but i thought considering ive been trying to make the effort to get my manual focusing in check..i need to make sure i keep that up and get it perfect.
I spent alittle bit of time in the back garden today and just took a couple of snaps..nothing special and nothing exciting but just alittle bit of practice to keep my skills.

I had abit of fun processing these..just trying something abit different. The flower is actually pink not white but i played around in ACR and applied Marina Millers awesome Code blu setting from her Undergroud Raw Settings and just brought down the expose and brightness to achieve this. The last photo i applied another of Marina's awesome settings..this time Mellow Maitai and just did the same..adjusted brightness,exposure and added abit of black..im not sure whether i like the more bright color version or the mellow maitai..i think i favour mellow maitai abit more though.

Grandad

I got some bad news today..sadly my grandad passed away at 2.35am this morning.He was diagnosed with lung cancer a couple of months ago and has spent the last 2-3wks in St Michael's Hospice being cared for 24/7..the nurses and volunteer staff there were fantastic people..truely wonderful human beings and im so grateful for what they did for him.
I took the top picture on Friday..the last picture ever taken of him..when me,my bro & his family went to visit him.Lola sat with him for awhile,being quiet and just taking him all in.He loved Lola..his great grandaughter..so much,she was the first great grandchild to be born..although he has a step-grandson aswell and he loved him dearly aswell.Sadly Lola will never remember him..she is too young..but luckily we have some great pictures so show her when she is older.

Francis George Benjamin Morris
22.1.1930 - 11.9.2007

A couple more

Im slowly editting the photos from the wedding..i want to get them done as soon as i can but its not easy with visiting all the time.
Ive decided that although i'll keep a color version of each photo...my black and white passion cant be ignore. Im in love with childish davids bw actions and have editted my first 2 using his bws.



The first shot is James & Lynda with their parents and the 2nd is the same group shot from the storyboard in the black and white version. I like them but im not sure yet..ive got the rest to do yet but i'll update as i go along!

The Wedding

My cousin James got married yesterday..yay..only 19yrs after him and Lynda got together!! I was 2 when they first met..oh man!! I was 2nd shooter at the wedding but man was that a task an a half..being a guest and a photographer was a mission..but im grateful to my cousin and Lynda for the opportunity to have a go at photographing a wedding..this was my first try and im still a complete novice but they were totally great about me practicing at their wedding.Being a guest was fantastic..they broke the mold at last..inviting only cousins that they grew up with to the actual wedding and exluding aunts & uncles from the main event.Our mums come from a family of 9 children..i am the youngest of the nieces and nephews at 21 and the eldest is in his mid 40's..so you can imagine the number of cousins and 2nd cousins there were to invite without worrying about aunts & uncles aswell.Most aunts and uncles were invited to the after wedding though and the kids of all our cousins were invited to that aswell.

We're a close family so it was a nightmare trying to get a minute away from them to get the photographs and as second shooter i had to work around the set ups of the main guy..he stuck with traditional photos and poses which limited my chance of 'experimentation' but still i think i did ok and got a few good shots.

I havent got round to editting any of the shots yet..aside from correcting exposure,levels etc due to the very bright sun that i had afew issues with.I put together a storyboard style thing to see what it would look like.I like how its come together so im excited to see what i can produce once i have editted the shots and got the finished product.

Hollydog

My only willing model in the house of late has been my beautiful and lovely dog! Before..after alot of persuasion and general whispering of cat she looked at the camera but recently shes been super helpful and looking at me straight away and for plenty of time..maybe she knows im trying my best to perfect my manual focusing and shes giving me the time to get it right. At least someone is letting me photograph them anyway.





These are my favourite shots...of the literally hundreds i have of her. The first and last were shot in manual...she was a great sport for staying still long enough for me to sort out my focus..in the end i had to reward her with a couple of treats. Shes so lovely...

Flickr 356 days project

On flickr right now the 365 project is all the rage. There are over 5000 members in the 365 day group and a world of inspiration. I kept my eye on the wonderful streams of Kristen Caldwell aka Marvelous Momma and Pete aka Arkworld.

I started my 365 day project 26 days ago so im very new to it but i think im learning slowly however,my photoshop skills are very very limited so unlike Arkworld my project is not very exciting.

So far i have a couple of photos that i think are my best and that im quite proud of

A girl & her guitar

This is my day 4 picture. I sat out in my backyard to take this picture..the guitar is mine..and yes i can play it!!

Cold Outside

My day 10 picture..also taken out in my backyard..after a few days sunshine in the uk it started to rain again and the weather was bad..i spent alot of my time dressed like this..wrapped up in hoodie,coat & scarf : ) I think these 2 pictures are the best of mine so far..at the moment im finding it hard to get the time to set up and take the shot and my skills sadly dont match my imagination!!