I will be at the at the Craftsmen’s Classic Art & Craft Show at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, VA this weekend October 19-21, 2012. This will be my first art & craft show in the Washington DC area in over 18 months – so I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone at the show.
I will have a number of new photographs on display at the show. You can see all of my new photos on my website.
I am starting to do art & craft festivals again! While I’ve enjoyed the time off from shows, I’ve missed having the opportunity to talk with people about my photography – and helping them choose the perfect photos to bring the peace and beauty of nature into their homes and offices.
Just a quick reminder – this Wednesday, September 12 is the last day to take advantage of the Early Bird Pricing on my 2013 Peaceful Beauty Calendar.
You can save $ 3.00 off the regular price for each calendar you order. Until September 12, the price for a single calendar is $ 16.95 (regular price will be $ 19.95).
There is a discount if you buy five or more calendars – $ 14.95 each before September 12 ($ 17.95 regular price).
And don’t forget – there is always Free Shipping on orders over $ 50.00 shipped to U.S. addresses.
The calendars make great gifts for your favorite gardener or nature enthusiast. So how about buying 5 – 1 for you – and 4 for those hard to shop for people on your holiday gift list.
I didn’t want you to miss the opportunity to order my 2013 Peace Beauty Calendar at the Early Bird Pricing.
As a photographer who posts her work on the web – I’ve always known my photos were being used without my permission on various websites. Until recently – I had no clue how prevalent the problem was.
Using Google’s Reverse Image Search engine – I’ve identified well over 500 unauthorized uses of my photos on websites around the world – and that’s just looking at photos posted to my blog in a 6 month period. Google is turning up many more uses than TinEye ever has – even for the same photos. Google’s Reverse Image search is awesome – all you need to do is go to images.google.com and click on the camera icon – and enter the URL of one of your photos.
Hit Enter – and Google will show you all the sites it has identified with that image on it. Here’s part of page showing where one of my bleeding heart photos can be found on the web. When you click on the photo – google takes you right to the page with the image.
In the past – I would file DMCA complaints when I found an infringement. But I only caught the people who gave me a photo credit or put a link to my website. I never caught the ones who just used my photos – now I can find them.
I’ve found both watermarked and unwatermarked images being used. I’m seeing my watermarks being removed -and other people’s watermarks applied to them. One of my favorites was the person who wrote “note her website on the photo” underneath my watermarked photo on her site.
And what I found really surprised me. I wasn’t surprised to find my photos on many personal blogs, as facebook and twitter avatars, on pinterest, etc. I was amazed to see how many businesses and non-profit organizations are using my photos without permission – from real estate companies, travel agents, florists, nurseries, botanical gardens, museums, etc
And then there were the ones I never expected – used as the cover photo for an ebook from a respected publisher, on the cover of a biology book for middle schoolers, on a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website, and copies of my Ceylon Daffodil photo available as a custom painted oil painting that can be ordered wholesale from China!!!!
And of course – the question is – now that I’ve found all these infringements – what am I going to do about them! The answer is – it depends . . .
In cases where I can identify the owner of US based websites where my image is being used – I’ll be sending them a Cease & Desist Letter with a demand for payment. PhotoAttorney Carolyn Wright has customizable forms and letters on her website for photographers – including a Cease & Desist Letter for just such circumstances.
For sites I can’t identify the owners that are hosted in the US – I’ll be filing DMCA complaints with their hosting companies.
I haven’t figured out yet what if anything I can do about photos on sites hosted in other countries.
And as for which infringement I’m going after first – I’m not sure yet – but I suspect that the tea-party backed candidate for U.S. Congress who supports repealing the 1964 Civil Rights Act who has one of my photos on his website – is pretty high on the list . . .
I’ll be doing a reading from and discussing my book Wildflower Meditations: A Gift for the Spirit at 10 AM at Tuesday morning’s meeting of the 2012 Summer Lawn Literary Reading Series. Organized by Dr. Rose Carlin, the series takes place on Tuesday mornings in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The reading site is a short walk from Olde Towne Gaitersburg and a short walk from Lake Forest Mall, on the 61 Ride-On bus route from Shady Grove Metro Station. Admission is free, and the public is invited. Call 240-426-7074 to RSVP and get the street address. This is on private property and privately funded.
I will have copies of my book and my 2013 calendar available for sale, and will be happy to sign them for people.
Irises are some of my favorite spring flowers. From the dwarf irises that herald the coming of Spring in early March to the bearded irises that bloom into early summer – I love them all. I’m absolutely fascinated by the colors, shapes and textures I see in the irises.
I’ve created a new video with some of my favorite iris photos. As you’ll see in the video, the irises come in all sorts of wonderful colors. And given all these wonderful colors – I wasn’t surprised to learn that the name iris is derived from the Greek word for rainbow.
The photographs in my video are accompanied by the wonderful harp music of Pamela Bruner. The sound track is Mozart’s Sonata, K. 545 from Pamela’s Classical Reverie CD, available at PamelaBrunerMusic.com
I do have several iris photographs available on my website including my newest iris photograph – Beautiful Vision Iris – a wonderful pink, peach and purple bearded iris.
