Calm Photos

I did quite a variety of commercial and assignment photo shoots this past year. Everything from food, medical facilities, dental office, home interiors, waterproofing product application, small families, big groups and events.The following images are my personal favorites from those and other commercial photography shoots. I thought it would be important to emphasize this body of work given all the nature and landscape work I’ve been posting recently.

Is Jim Crotty a nature photographer ? Is Jim Crotty a portrait photographer ? Does Jim Crotty do commercial work ?

Yes, yes and yes - for God’s and cash flow sake, yes (just no weddings, please). I’m hearing more and more that here in Dayton I’m regarded as strictly a nature photographer. That could be part of the problem why I struggle do to business in this town. Sometimes I’m in a fight against my own success. But I still believe there’s another, more negative reason why this is the case. In fact, I actually know it to be true. More on that later. For now here are my personal favorites from my commercial assignments for 2007.

      

It’s been a while since I’ve added a new selection to my online storefront of montage “PosterPrints.” With all the wonderful new photographs captured this past autumn - particularly in Hocking Hills - I thought it would be fun to create a montage of select nature and landscape images that were taken using the high dynamic range technique. Personally I think this body of work represents some of the best nature and landscape photography that I’ve completed to date.

What I would like to do is one more showing and reception here in the Dayton area before my planned move toward Columbus this spring or early summer. These images look absolutely amazing as 24″ x 36″ Giclees prints on enhanced matte paper. I’m looking for a local venue that will host a showing of these prints, mounted but unframed, whereby I could organize an opening reception and then perhaps keep the prints on display for a few weeks or so.

This newest montage print, titled “Autumn Opening,” represents just a small sampling of the images that I have available for print and licensing sales as well as a possible showing. The ImageKind link listed below will take you to my newest online print storefront where this and all of my other montage PosterPrints are available for sale along with a wide selection of papers, mats and frames.

Small Signs

* Last night, while putting my daughters to bed, my oldest, Emma, said “Dad, I have something I need to tell you.” At first I thought oh no, what did my eight-year-old mini-me do now. Instead she smiled and asked a simple question. “Do you know about Aquila ?” Well of course I did. One of two of my favorite constellations in the night sky, right along with Orion. Aquila - the Eagle of Ancient Greece who carried thunderbolts to Zeus. Altair is its’ brightest star, forming one of the three points of the summer triangle.

“We’re studying the stars in science class and each of us had to pick a constellation to report on. I chose Aquila because it made me think of you.”

* Early this morning, on my way to the gym, I received an email from a writer based in northeast Georgia, inquiring about usage of one of my photographs of a Golden Eagle on his web site to promote his newest work of fiction in which this magnificent bird of prey serves as principal image in the hero’s journey through various stages of life.

* While exercising in the gym at the Five Seasons Club (now go ahead certain readers of this blog and run the numbers on that one - it’s your favorite pastime), I notice that all the new weight machines have the brand name of - you guessed it - “Eagle” prominently displayed on the top. And then one of the few people in the gym at that hour is guy with a t-shirt on with a large eagle on the front, promoting the “Eagle 5K Race.”

* And then when I get into my studio and check my account on iStock Photo, I notice that the non-exclusive licensing rights for one of the 30+ photographs I have listed with this stock agency just sold on 12-17-07. It was another photograph that I have of that same Golden Eagle, taken in Ft. Collins, Colorado back in February of 2006.

Small signs. Immense meaning.

The Darkest Hour

December 20th, 1994. Never before, or never will it be again, as dark as it was for me on that day. The humiliation and destruction was nearly complete.

They almost succeeded. Almost.

Alone in the night, and the fears and anxieties close-in, hungry for the final thud of the coffin lid or the locked gates of places where people are conveniently placed away from sight, never to be heard from again.

I hit rock-bottom just days before the longest night of the year. I’ve been told to “get over it” and “move on.” But how can you when it is your own blood, and what makes the sting of this stigma and embarrassment so ever-lasting and painful are the echoes of the giggles, laughs and willing assistance of paid participants.

I’m like the ex-smoker who hates smoke-filled rooms the most. I know them so well because I was almost - almost - one of them.

Forgiveness is my only redemption. My only true hope for peace. At least I know this now, but I’m not there yet. I’m still fighting the hurt, the night, the darkness.

I don’t think it was a coincidence that such a painful fall occurred at that time of year, just as it I don’t think that December 25th was randomly chosen from the calendar as the date to mark the birth of Jesus Christ.

You see, it is in the darkest hour of night that the small signs of hope shine the brightest, marking the turning back to the sun, the return of hope and the promise of spring.

This year the winer solstice occurs on December 22nd, at 1:08 AM. From that point forward each day becomes slightly longer, the shadows a bit shorter and the night less and less overwhelming.

Even now, just four days prior, the small signs are appearing. Like the little bright lights on the Christmas tree that sits in the corner of the family room or the stars in the sky that make the Eagle.

As long as we keep looking and knowing and loving, the darkness will never prevail. Never.

Thank you Emma. I love you.

Thank you Church of the Customer Blog for summing up in just a few short words and eye-opening story what is quietly destroying our society and our free market economy -

http://www.churchofthecustomer.com/blog/2007/12/the-tyranny-of.html

My favorite line from their entry:

Therefore, our law-obsessed American society makes it easy to believe that creating yet another rule will limit exposure. But it’s like putting on a full-body condom before swimming in the lake — you might be a little safer from the leeches, but your flexibility is restricted and you look like a dork.

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

I’ve chosen a few images to share from an assignment photo shoot I did last week, of a client’s Christmas Party held at the Dayton Art Institute.One of the things I take pleasure in when doing event photography is to go in for the little details that sometimes get overlooked, particularly at social gatherings. There were plenty of people shots, but sometimes the decorative details and unique characteristics of the venue can say just as much about an event, if not more, as the typical adults-at-a-party images.

This particular location was a bit challenging because the shooting conditions were very dark and there’s only so much a portable flash unit will do. Because it was a busy event with lots of people it really wouldn’t have worked if I tried to move portable strobe lights around. So I tried to mix things up between hand-held shots with a Canon 580ex Speedlite and some longer exposures using my Bogen tripod. All shots were captured using a Canon 1D Mark III.

. . . and it becomes to late.

My Christmas Card to you -

And something slightly comical -

Don’t send a lame Holiday eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

Friend David Esrati has brought-up a most interesting topic worthy of thought and discussion, by way of D’Arcy Norman dot net, for just about anyone who markets themselves, their ideas, their products or their artwork on the internet, and these days who doesn’t ? The topic has to do with Creative Commons Licensing- the granting of use of content in and on other venues with usually just the minimum requirement of attribution given and the individual artist or writer determining whether or not the material can be altered in any way. Pretty much a web-type compromise between “all rights reserved” and “go ahead and do whatever you want with it.”

Creative Commons Licensing - David Esrati, Websiteology
“One of the things that shocks people in Dayton Ohio- is my willingness to let my competition come take the Websitetology seminar and learn our “trade secrets” to web optimization. I also share my ideas for making Dayton a better place on my personal website, www.esrati.com all without worrying about people stealing my ideas. In fact, if they steal them, all the better, although I’d like to be rewarded somehow for them. In todays “expert economy” that reward can be as simple as proper attribution, That’s what the Creative Commons license is all about.”

I posted a rather lengthy response to both David’s and D’Arcy’s posts because I believe this is probably the number one, hot topic amongst pro photographers and professional organizations representing pro photographers. On one hand a photographer desires to market him or herself and his or her work primarily through the fine art of reputation-building and published images. Granting a Creative Commons License for usage of all work posted on a photographer’s web site, as well as work posted on various photo online communities such as Flickr, is a sure way to “get your name out there,” especially if you have a reputable portfolio of better-than-just-good images.

On the other hand it can be looked upon as just giving away your work for nothing and hurting those pro photographers who make their living from the licensing of usage of their photographs.

Before the onset of the internet and web-based communities, a pro photographer’s only concern was whether or not a client was taking his or her prints down to the local Kinkos for color copying or throwing them on a flatbed scanner for reproduction. The industry adjusted by developing photo finishes that result in horrible desktop scans and copyright symbols on the back of prints that the copy centers kept an eye out for fear of serious copyright infringement fines. This is why so many wedding and portrait photographers have their own horror stories about clients demanding negatives.

Today, with digital and the web, it is a whole new ballgame primarily because the opportunities and pitfalls for an individual photographer and his or her work exist far beyond the city limits of his or her hometown.

Like everything else involved with professional photography, this area of copyrights and Creative Commons Licensing is constantly evolving and changing. It’s up to the individual photographer to decide the best course of action that will market his or her work for maximum exposure (and subsequently profit) while also protecting his or her rights as a professional and an artist. Unfortunately that usually doesn’t occur until after a long series of trial and errors.

As of today I pretty much lean in favor of Creative Commons Licensing. True to my nature I am a teacher and a helper and I’d rather consider the positive opportunities that are available through online collaboration and community-building. But as an artist it is important for me not to have my work simply “lifted” or copied without attribution, and even worse, altered and then sold for someone else’s profit. That’s kind of where I draw the line and why I only post online versions of my images that are 72 dpi and usually less than one megabyte in size. These will still make a decent 8″x10,” but far from pro standards. I try to keep much tighter reins when it comes to my original raw files and high-res TIFF and JPEG versions.

A pro nature shooter that I have an immense amount of respect for once told me that people are going to copy your images off your web site no matter what you do, so you may as well let them advertise for you. Also notice on the image below - as well as all other images posted on this site, ohiophoto.org and my Flickr page - that my copyright is both my name and one of the url’s for my main site. So, right click away !

There’s also a good article on the Creative Commons issue and Flickr at Wired Magazine. See http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2007/11/flickr_cc