A subset of these photographs were recently exhibited as part of the Look2011 International Photography Festival hosted in Liverpool.

I use watermarks on images I post online in order to:

• Deter people from using my images without my permission.
• Ensure viewers know who the images belong to, should they be used despite the watermarks.

I also only make lower resolution images publicly available to help prevent them being usable for anything other than online viewing.

As with any visible method of protection, there are downsides to some watermarks:

• They can be cropped out of an image.
• They can be cloned out of an image.
• They detract from the viewing experience intended by the photographer.

The last point is why I’ve tried to use subtle watermarks because I personally find most to be too distracting and end up competing with the actual image itself for the viewer’s attention.

Recently, a speaker at a not-for-profit conference took it upon themselves to download a number of my images (which were all flagged as all rights reserved) from Flickr and incorporate them into their presentation without asking me beforehand.  I only found out through another source and took exception.

Had the speaker contacted me before their presentation and sought permission or if they’d used them via Flickr then there wouldn’t have been a problem.  One of the reasons why I took the photographs was to share them with others and Flickr is my chosen vehicle to do this.  I don’t rule out other mediums, but I want to have the option of deciding which.  They are my images, after all.  What right does anybody else have in saying how they’re used?

From my perspective, they took my images, used them without my permission and expected I’d never find out.  They were wrong, in every way, and apologised profusely when I contacted them, but still gave no explanation as to why they didn’t seek my permission first.  It’s plain and simple theft.

What the speaker didn’t appreciate was the consequence of being caught out.  Sure, they get to carry on as they please and hopefully their conscience will prevent them from stealing other people’s work in the future, but what happened affected me and caused me to reconsider how I share my work.  It had to.

So, maybe I watermark more heavily and reduce the resolution of the images I publish.  Will this prevent any more instances of theft?  I hope so.  Will it detract from the viewing experience?  I can’t see how it can’t, but what choice do I have?

Here’s the time lapse video clip from this latest trip.

Interestingly, I just noticed one of my earlier time lapse videos made top spot of Flickr’s Explore for October 17th 2009. It may not stay there indefinitely, but I found it an interesting occurrence nonetheless.

Just as with SEO and religion, I’m not really one for discussing possible theories about how Flickr measures interestingness. I have my own theories about such things and don’t feel the need to convince anyone else unless they’re paying me for it. I will say this about Explore: I think it is more a measure of marketing rather than photography/videography. Perhaps, you can understand why I think this is? Agree/Disagree?

Never the less, the city still makes for a fascinating show.  So, let’s get on with it!

On my next visit to the tower, I think I’ll try something else. The position on the roof I’ve been shooting from is very popular. So, it’s only fair someone else gets a go. Unless the weather is spectacular in which case it’s first come, first served, baby! :OP

I’ve been on the roof before and it really is a spectacular view over not just the city centre, but also of the surrounding suburbs and even across the Mersey to Wirral.

Last week, I was on the roof again as the sun was setting and I took the opportunity to shoot a time lapse sequence.  Unfortunately, my tripod was resting on some wobbly floorboards which people kept treading on throughout the sequence.  So, there’s a degree of jitteriness caused by camera movement, but I really enjoy watching the resultant clip because it reminds me there’s so much life going on all over the city.

One way to make these gradual changes more visible is to record snapshots over a longer period of time and then review them over a shorter period. Like drawing a line on a wall to record a child’s height over a period of years. Viewing the snapshots together in a sequence makes the change easier to see.

Photographs are one such means to record snapshots in time and I’ve been experimenting with creating videos made up of photographs of the same scene over a period of time aka time lapse photography. This is where individual photographs are played back in a sequence – as frames of a video clip – effectively compressing time and allow the viewer to more easily see gradual changes in a scene.

Here’s one of my first attempts at time lapse photography from my recent trip to the Lake District (Cumbria, UK)

To make this, I shot 999 exposures using the intervalometer function on the D700 over a period of 2.8 hours, from 06:50 to 09:36 12/09/2009. Then, I batch process the images in Lightroom and used them to create an image sequence in Quicktime. From Quicktime, I exported the sequence as a video file and imported it into iMovie where I added the titles and carried out the final export.

I feel like I’ve discovered a new room at home, since I started doing these time lapse videos. I’m only just starting to touch on the possibilities and I’ve a few more ideas to try yet. I just hope the shutter on my cameras last for the duration!

Quick tip: having a second body to use whilst your first is tied up shooting time lapse is immensely useful and helps to ensure you don’t miss other stuff that’s going on.

Pete saw this and was insistent we have a whiteboard installed during our exhibition. So, we did!

Whilst Clay Enos found his subjects on the streets, we engaged the people who came to visit the exhibition. This might seem like shooting fish in a barrel, but it really wasn’t. Getting your portrait taken is probably one of the things you’d least expect to happen at a photo exhibition. After all, the idea is to go and look at photos. Right? So, the process still involved approaching a stranger and asking them to stand in front of a plain white board so you can take their portrait.

Those people who hated being photographed still hated being photographed. Them being within the walls of St. Luke’s didn’t stop them from saying, “No, thanks”, but a little encouragement was often all that was needed to get a willing subject.

Now, you might wonder where the fun and creativity is at. “Where’s the stunning vista or bikinis? All you’re doing is getting people to stand in front of a white board!” On the face of it, that might be all it seems, but when you’re forced to work in such restrictive conditions it really does take a lot of creativity to pull off something a bit different.

Putting creativity to one side, the interaction with people and the actual taking of portraits provided fun on both sides of the camera.  Some clearly relished the opportunity to be a part of the exhibition whilst others just enjoyed having their portrait taken.  There were probably a few who were less keen, but agreed anyway.

It was a great way to get to know just who was visiting and why they were in Liverpool.  Some were locals, lots were from different countries from around the world.  Some had come specifically to see the exhibition, others had just been walking past and decided to see what was going on.

Also very interesting was to see just how different the portraits were as they varied from photographer to photographer.  Some went for straight portraits, some asked their subjects to do anything but smile, some asked their subjects to pose, some just left it all to their subjects to choose how they wanted to have their portrait taken.

What might seem like a very simple and even boring way to take portraits is actually great fun and very involving.  Even if you don’t want to go as far as setting up a board on the street, why not do what one of the collective did and set one up in your back garden and ask family & friends to pose?

Just a warning though, it can get a bit addictive!

Fab!