The Club Flickr Account and your photographs.

As you know when a picture is needed online and you don't have it in your Flickr 'stream, you can't be bothered to upload it or you don't have a Flickr account then I use the clubs Flickr account to upload your photograph. Some of you sometimes get worried about your pictures being used by other people or want to make sure you get your name mentioned if your picture is used or mentioned anywhere. Well to help you understand what I do when I upload a photo using the clubs account I thought I'd write this and let you know how I try to make sure it's you that get’s the credit and not the club. It's also to let you know in case you suddenly turn around and decide that you’ve suffered amnesia and didn’t know what was going on. So below are the things that I do and why I do them.
When I upload one of your pictures you will see that I always try to give them a title that includes your name and in the description I try and give the reason why I uploaded it. An example can be seen by visiting this picture.
What you don’t see, unless you actually look for it, is the exif (some people call it meta just to be awkward) data that is uploaded along with the photograph. I’m not going to go really in depth here about what it is but I am going to try and explain why I have used certain words and phrases in the exif data. There are several different reasons why image files were designed to also carry this extra information. The one that really concerns us is to prove who the picture belongs to and provide contact details to anyone who would like to use that photograph.
I’ve just updated the exif data that I use when uploading to the clubs Flickr Account and if anyone finds what I have done to it unacceptable then please let me know and I will either change it (if several of you don’t like the updated version) or you can upload your own pictures in future, that way you make sure you use exif data that is specific to you and not the club.
I’m going to list the section titles then inside “” show the wording I’ve decided to use and, if necessary, then explain the reason for using the wording I have chosen;

There’s a section for the address of the photographer. I have, for convenience, put the clubs mailing address and contact phone number as the image creators address. I have also put the club as the creator of the Image and for the creators website I have put the clubs site.

Copyright - “© 2011 Original photographer / Reflex Camera Club”. The first bit should be self explanatory. The reason I’ve added Reflex Camera Club is not so that the club gets any credit nor is the club trying to grab your copyright. It’s easier to do it this way then people treat us as your agents and so attempt to get in touch with us so that we can let you know and then pass on your details to whoever is interested in your photograph. We’re not going to start charging you, asking for a percentage or attempt to claim any rights over your photograph.

Copyright Status - “Copyrighted”. It’s not up to me or the club to decide if you want your work to be copyrighted or not BUT I will also not decide that you do not want to copyright it so by having this as the selection anyone wanting to use your picture has to seek permission from you first. It’s the safest way for the club to operate if we are going to continue showing your pictures online using the Clubs Flickr Account.

Rights Usage Terms - “All Rights Reserved”. Means you reserve the right to refuse any or all use of your pictures for any use whatsoever.

Copyright Info URL - “http://www.flickr.com/people/reflex_camera_club”. Tells people that if they want more info on the copyright of the photograph they should go to that website. If you follow the link you will see that on the PROFILE page of the clubs Flickr Account I explain that they can contact the pictures owner by emailing the club.

Creator Job Title - “Member of Reflex Camera Club”. Well you are and it was the best & easiest thing I could think of
.
Instructions - “Do not reproduce in any form without prior written permission. All images remain the property and © copyright of the original photographer. If you wish to use an image then please get in touch and we will pass on your contact details to the original photographer.” Pretty long but I hope it gets across that the images are not the clubs but belong to whoever took the original photograph. Also it should be obvious to anyone reading it that they need to get in touch with the club so that we can put them in touch with you.

Creditline - “Reflex Camera Club – www. reflexcc.org.uk” If you’ve ever been asked if a magazine or somewhere could use your picture you’ve probably heard the words “we can’t pay you but we can give you a credit”. Apart from replying “credits don’t buy me food fool!” you should also give them your name and website so that they can publish that next to your picture, after they’ve paid you of course. This is what would be printed next to your picture if the club gave permission for it to be used. Of course we won’t ever give permission. That’s for you to do and so you can tell them what you want printed next to your picture.

Source - “Reflex Camera Club”.  Where the picture has come from. If it was you uploading it then it would be your name. But remember your only reading this because you didn’t upload the picture yourself!

Keywords - “Reflex Camera Club, Photography Group, Photography Society, Photography, Taken by member of Reflex Camera Club, All Rights Reserved, ©, Do not reproduce without written consent, Copyright remains with the original photographer.” These are automatically added to every picture that gets uploaded by the clubs Flickr account. If you look at a picture on Flickr you will see a section called “TAGS” that’s what Flickr calls keywords. They are the words that people search for to find your, or any, picture.


If you don’t agree to me using these phrases and words when I upload YOUR  pictures to the clubs Flickr account you need to let me know as I will be using this format from now on. If you decide you don’t like it and we cannot come up with replacement wording that is acceptable to everyone then you will have to upload your own pictures. Just remember if you don’t want me to use this and you don’t upload your own pictures you will never see your work displayed on the Blog, website or Flickr group.

If you’d like to find out more about exif (meta) data that’s contained in virtually every digital photograph then go take a look at the Photo Meta Data website.
Feel free to leave comments here or at the Flickr Group

A Miscellany of Subjects

Last meeting we were treated to an excellent slide show from Leo Rich. Not only did he show some fantastic photography, I really enjoyed the portraits, he provided a funny and entertaining commentary to go with it. I can heartily recommend going along to one of his talks if you have the chance.

If you haven't yet voted for your favourite pictures in our Flickr competition then please go take a look at the entries and vote for your favourite one.

The perils of Texting.

So a group of us all decide to meet at Chew Valley Reservoir to try and get some pictures of the full moon. As it was going to be at it’s closest point to earth for 19 years. We’re all having a laugh and joking around when I get a text message from Kev saying it was cloudy where he was (he’d gone of to Hayling Island for the weekend). We replied back and then just carried on with what we were doing. Then I got another text! I’m hoping he accidentally left out a word. If not he and his wife have some serious explaining to do when we see them next.

Highlights without the Hair Dye!

Last night we had our lovely little friendly competition on the theme of Highlights. A great night but something just didn’t seem right, could it have been the strangely calming music that was being played. I know I heard a few snore’s from the back of the room. The lack of heckling was strange. Normally one corner of the room turns into the balcony in the Muppet theatre (do I have to hide now?).
The Overall Winner was Kev Spiers with his picture of a Foggy Cadbury’s. Shame he didn’t stay to collect his prize. Nope we’re not going to tell him what it was. We’re just going to keep reminding him he didn’t get to have it.

Second place was Eddie House with his photograph Brandon Hill Sunset	Antony Bezer came third with his Lighthouse photograph

Well done all of you and thanks to everyone who entered.
_{All pictures remain the © of the original artists and are posted with permission.}

Come get yer 'air dun!

Don't forget this Thursday is our Digital Projected Competition with the theme Highlights. No points or prizes it's just for fun. The only rule (well 2 rules) are you're picture must be on the theme of Highlights and sized correctly (1400 pixels on the longest edge if Landscape orientated or 1050 pixels if Portrait orientated). We'd also love it if you name the file in the same way as you do for club competitions, but that's not essential for this. If your going to Dropbox or email your entries please do so by Thursday lunchtime as I need to have them to bring to the meeting. You can of course also bring them in on a memory stick if you really have to.

Also it's your last chance to submit your Trio entries. If your submitting digital images then you need to have them named correctly. It's not hard to do and here's three examples;

01_my picture title_my name.jpg
02_my other picture title_my name.jpg
03_my last picture title_my name.jpg

You might notice a pattern there. Please note it's an UNDERSCORE and NOT a hyphen or minus sign. On most keyboards you can find the underscore right next to the 0 (zero) and to use it just hold the shift key down whilst pressing that key. Why am I going on and on about it? Well when the pictures are collated to be sent of to the judge we use a bit of software that automates the printing of the score sheet and removes & renumbers the files so the judge doesn't get to see who created the photographs. This software works on a pattern recognition system. Which means it knows that after the first underscore is the title of the picture and after the 2nd underscore is the photographers name. If it doesn't find an underscore it doesn't work and we have to rename the files manually. Which can get annoying when you consider for the last competition we had over 40 digital images. So please do take the time to name your files correctly. If you use Lightroom there is a walk through on our website which creates a preset so you can simply click one option and it resizes and renames your files for you. If you still need a reminder of what the Trio involves then just follow this link.

Round 4 Winners

 

Yet again some fantastic photographs were entered.  Thanks to Paul Kessler LRPS for proving to be an excellent and entertaining judge.

The pictures either link to the version on the photographers website or Flickr account, where possible, else they link to the clubs Flickr account. If the photographer has a website or Flickr account then their name sends you to that.

If you have put your winning picture online somewhere or would rather have the link point elsewhere, please let me know.

Thanks to everyone who took part and congratulations to the winners.

_______________________________________ Winning Print The Fighter, Rich Price	___________________________________________ Winning Digital Image Tidal Curves, Roy Williams
-------------------------------------------------- 2nd Place Print Shadows & Reflections, Theresa Driscoll	-------------------------------------------------------- 2nd Place Digital Image Great Tree Nymph (Idea Leuconoe), Mark Stone
-------------------------------------------------- 3rd Place Print Hands of the Vampire, Ian Coombs	-------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Place Digital Image King of the Jungle, Dan Thomas
-------------------------------------------------- Commended Print Holler, Alison Davies	-------------------------------------------------------- Highly Commended Digital Image Unbroken Gaze, Alison Davies
-------------------------------------------------- Commended Print My Gentle Friend, Alison Davies	-------------------------------------------------------- Commended Digital Image Shadows, Adrian Cook
-------------------------------------------------- Commended Digital Image Riddles in the Dark, Ian Coombs	-------------------------------------------------------- Commended Digital Image Heading Home, Ruth Doyle

Reproduced here with permission. All © remains with the original photographer.

Showing what we do.

On Thursday we had several members bring along photographs and talk about the reasons why and how they took them. We also had two people who decided to give talks about a couple of techniques used to create or process their photo's. Danny gave us an insight into why and how he take all his pictures in Raw whilst Rich took us through a technique called focus stacking. Both very interesting and useful techniques. Thanks to everyone that took part and to those of you that were inspired, it's your turn next year!