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Welcome

Pink Geranium "Welcome to my blog." I guess that's what everyone probably says in their first post, right? I've recently redesigned my photography website, but it's been a couple years since I've blogged, so I'm not really sure what to say other than "welcome."

A little bit of background: I've dabbled in photography for over 20 years. I mainly specialize in nature and landscape photography, but I shoot various other subjects as they grab my interest. I shoot with a Canon 20D as my main camera. Other cameras I use include a pocket-size Olympus, an iPhone 4S and a ContourGPS HD video camera mounted on my bicycle helmet.

I'm not really sure where this blog will go, but I appreciate you stopping by and I hope you'll come back.

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A Long Absence

It's been five years since my last blog post. Five years. I realize how pitiful that is. Why even bother with a blog if I'm not going to update it, right? Very good question. I started out with good intentions, but...well, you know what they say about good intentions. Part of the delay was due to my procrastination in writing a new blog post. Sometimes writing doesn't come very naturally for me. I struggle with what to write about. Other times an easy topic comes to mind, but my nit-picky nature comes out and it feels like it takes me forever to find the right words. By that point, my interest in the topic has waned and I've moved on to other things. "Squirrel!" Various life events happened during the past few years that resulted in my website and blog being pushed to the back-burner on my priority list. I got married (after waiting 20+ years for it to become legal. YAY for marriage equality!). I changed jobs in 2015 (same organization, different te

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We all live in a world where it's easy to hide behind the relative anonymity of a computer screen and keyboard which, unfortunately, brings out the worst in some people. After reading a troll-ish response to someone in an online photography forum recently, I have a few things to say. I think it's safe to say with 100% certainty, that there is not one professional well-known photographer who at some point didn't start from the beginning. Yes, some people may be born with a more innate talent than others, but they still have to practice their craft. Practice. Fail. Practice. Fail. Practice, practice, practice. One day the technique is perfected, and you begin to see improvement. Work hard to be the best you can be. Whatever your craft or profession. In terms of photography, not one of us picks up a camera one day and becomes a world-famous photographer the next. We all have to start somewhere: asking questions, learning from other photographers, reading books, watching

Do Schools Teach Students About Photo Usage and Copyright Infringement?

I know I've discussed the issue of copyright infringement and stolen photos before , but last week I had a few other instances occur so I thought this would be a good time to discuss it again. Here's what happened last week: I did an online search for my most-often-stolen photo (not the one pictured here) and sure enough: three more instances of the same photo pilfered without my permission. One website was a high school blog. Another site was a college website (their student online newspaper, actually) and the third was a news/entertainment-type site. I sent all three infringers my standard DMCA takedown request letter via email. In the email I explained that I am the copyright owner on the photo, they are committing copyright infringement by using the photo without my written permission and provided links to the photo on my website. Before taking further action, I requested that they either remove the photo immediately or send payment - a very reasonable fee for one-tim