Categories
BlahBlahBabble Getting Down to Business

Dear Media, How to Not to Cite Photos…

I caused a kerfuffle on Twitter about an hour ago. Over photographs that weren’t my own. I’m posting about it here not to point a finger of blame (note the apology at the end of this), but more so to discuss what happened and how photographer’s works should be credited. On to the story…

As I was eating lunch, I was really excited to spot a post from the Houston Press about the top 10 romantic restaurants in Houston. I love to check out new restaurants with Mike, especially since he is such a foodie at heart. (Ok, I may be a little bit too, even though I’m a selective eater.) As I browsed the article, I was a little shocked to see photos credited to FACEBOOK.

Facebook, as you probably already know, is not a photographer. I am a photographer. While these photos were not mine, if they had been? I would have been pissed. And since I’m a photographer, I was feeling a little indignant for all the other photographers out there. Because even YOU, professional photographer or not, iPhone or fancy SLR camera, own the copyright to your images the second your finger comes off of the trigger. And just because you post them to Facebook, that doesn’t mean Facebook should be credited as the source. You are the source. Not Facebook. EVER.

I respect the Houston Press. I like to read articles by the Houston Press, especially the food-related articles in Eating Our Words. So I was just stunned that they would ever credit Facebook.

And? I told them so.

Then I saw that they had a slideshow of other romantic restaurants in Houston. I opened the link on my iPhone this time with hesitation. I went through 4 photos credited to Facebook before I finally came to one with a person credited for the photo. Stunned all over again, and this time fuming because I know they should know better, I tweeted about it again.


Click to view larger. Screen capture of the Houston Press – “Love is in the Air – Houston’s Most Romantic Restaurants. Copyright the Houston Press and the respective owners of the images, whoever they may be. Posted without permission for educational purposes only.

I was horrified at the response I received to my tweet.

Floored, I tell you, floored.

Before I go any further, let me add in here I am NOT A LAWYER and I don’t work for any Criminal Attorney either. So seek out proper legal counsel if you need it regarding this matter. I am not a lawyer. Clear? Ok. Moving on…

Also, these photos were not my photos, and I’m not some lawsuit happy photographer claiming I’m going to sue the Houston Press. If you are a photographer and you find yourself in that situation, get a lawyer. Personally? I’d ask quietly first for them to fix the source. Then, if online, file a DMCA. Lawsuits are a last resort! This time, this topic though? I wasn’t so quiet, because I was mad for all of us. I am ready to call a Court reporter from NAEGELI. Court reporters may conduct business within a courtroom setting, but just as many are found in other settings. This is because court reporters, who are educated and trained to record and transcribe verbatim, are in demand in a number of settings and for a number of purposes, from broadcast closed captioning and captioning services for the deaf or hard-of-hearing at live events, to legal depositions and shareholder meetings.

Dear media, if you use a photographer’s work without citing them as the source and the photographer choses to do so, they can sue you for it. (I am the type of person who normally plays nice, but not everyone is.) Especially in this case, where the images are not licensed to you to use, were taken from Facebook, may or may not have been licensed to the venue and may or may not have had terms attached to that license, and where you are making a profit off of the website displaying the images. A photographer could sue you for even more damages if they have registered them with the Copyright Office. Claiming that it is all that the restaurants gave you is LAZY JOURNALISM. Research the source, ask them who they came from so they can be properly cited, and cover your ass! Because when I sue you, and we go to court, “I dunno – they gave them to us that way” isn’t going to be acceptable.

Media & journalist that work for the media? You of ALL PEOPLE should know better.

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this. There are even other publications in Houston that have a far, far worse track record. Matter of fact, publications all over are doing this.

This even goes beyond the media. It goes to all of us. If you post a photo online that someone else took, cite the source. Exactly who took it. Exactly where you found it. If you don’t know, find out. On your blog, on Pinterest, on Facebook – wherever. Credit the photographer.

Copyright law has a lot of gray areas. I’m kind of in love with copyright law, quite a champion of it actually, and yet I release most of my personal photos and work under a Creative Commons license. But that is a topic for another day. The main point? Know how the work is licensed before you use it!

Photographs, and other works of art, are licensed for a reason. For example, for my wedding clients they receive a DVD of images *for personal use*. I then give vendors a DVD of images of their venues, flowers, whatever the case may be and I license that for commercial use, with credit to Christine Tremoulet, and a link to my site online when applicable.

I need to be credited though. Not Facebook. EVER.

Facebook is not a source. Pinterest is not a source. Twitter is not a source. Flickr is not a source. Your favorite style blog is not a source. The person who took the photo -or- the copyright holder? THEY are the source.

If we don’t all stand up and demand that this sort of activity be stopped, well … it isn’t going to end well for us, the photographers left holding the camera and not much more. Even you, the amateur photographer. You own those photos. (I’ll save the discussion for who has a stake in your copyright when you upload to social media sites for another day.)

The final irony? Journalists are upset & losing their jobs because they are being replaced by social media sources instead. Yet here is media using social media as a source for photographs instead of hiring a photographer to go out and get the shots or licensing them properly. Seems pretty circular to me. And somehow? Just sad.

PLEASE NOTE: Katharine Shilcutt of Eating Our Words & the Houston Press did apologize for this incident and is diligently working to clean up the sources. I still respect the Houston Press because of that, probably more than ever before. This post is not meant as an attack on the Houston Press – just as a wake up call to all journalists to please cite us as sources just like they would want to be cited, to respect our copyrights, and to play nice. The Houston Press was just the latest media outlet to do this that I’ve come across recently, and the one that finally moved me to write about it.

Do not go on a witch hunt of the Houston Press. We are cool.

Repeating the disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. I am a photographer. If you are seeking legal counsel, hire a lawyer to help you out with these murky issues. I highly recommend Katie Sunstrom in Texas, and Dineen Pashoukos Wasylik in Florida, who are lawyers. But I am not. I did however take Katie’s photo on that site, which she has permission to use for commercial use.

Categories
Houston & The Heights

Goodbye, Old House…

Eight years ago, Mike & I got engaged on New Year’s Eve, put an offer on a house at the end of January, bought the house in mid-March, moved out of both of our apartments into the house in which we are helped by a moving company near me, and got married at the end of May. Seems we aren’t the type to stand still long enough to let moss grow under our feet. We also hired flexible janitorial services company to take care of our home.

The house we bought back was in Lakewood Forest, in northwest Houston. Ok, technically a Tomball mailing address, but nowhere close to Tomball, and we didn’t get to vote in any city elections (either Tomball or Houston) so I’m still claiming Houston. It is a nice, quiet neighborhood. Older trees, big houses. Great schools, close to where I lived before so that Jason could stay in the same Scout troop and new people at his new school.

Our House, Part III

It was a good house for us.

But we always wanted to live in the Heights.

So in May of last year, everything aligned, and we bought that house in the Heights that we had always wanted. The house I had always dreamed about, since it is a 1920 Bungalow. With the oppressive heat of last summer already underway, we moved the essentials from the old house to the new (much older) house and put the other one on the market. We made sure to schedule all the necessary new home inspections before settling in fully.

Six months later, we finally got an offer at the beginning of January. Just shy of the 8 years since we made an offer on the house ourselves. This past weekend – the actually anniversary of our offer – we had a HUGE garage sale to sell the furniture we had left behind that we didn’t want but staged the house with, because we are getting the perfect custom sofas san diego for the new house. Now we’re packing up the items we want to keep, donating the items that we don’t but didn’t sell in the garage sale, and finally getting it all moved out. The closing on the house will be next week. We will finally be back to having just one mortgage. It has been a looooong 6 months. We got some of our furniture from here, we love all of it.

Being there this weekend and visiting with our old neighbors made me realize how fantastic our old house was. The new owners will have a great neighborhood to be a part of, and I hope they enjoy their time there as much as we have.

Meanwhile, I’ll be figuring out what to do with all that stuff we are moving. Seems a 1300 sq ft house is a LOT smaller than 3000 sq ft. This should be interesting! The garage might be their home for the meantime until we decide where to put them (or sell them). The new one has a bit tricky locking system so I might have it changed to something more “me” friendly. IF you’re in the looking for garage door repair services near Lake Elsinore, I recommend these guys.  We´re getting our new furniture to create a modern bedroom for ourselves, it´ll look fabulous!

In a way, I can’t wait to say goodbye to our old house. In a way, I hate to see it go. We started our marriage there. We enjoyed the company of many friends and family there. It was good to us. If you’re looking to sell your house, Born To Buy Houses can help make the process quick and hassle-free.

But I can’t deny it – the Heights is where we belong, and I am so glad to be living here at last. It has always felt like home, both within our house and within the neighborhood. Saying goodbye to the first house is bittersweet, but knowing how many amazing times are ahead, I’m looking forward to signing the papers!

(PS – For those of you playing along at home, yes – I went to Imaging USA in New Orleans, ALT Design Summit the next day in Salt Lake City, and then came home to clear out our old house. All within 2 weeks. Whew!)

Categories
Smaller Pink Cookie

The Four Hour Body Four Week Update!

I can’t WAIT to share photos and stories from last week at ALT with you, but first I figured I needed to share my Four Hour Body update!

Back in December, I had a breaking point. There are many cooler terms for what happened, but the reality was that I broke. Somewhere between my desire to just be able to buy a dress off the rack at Anthropologie and watching “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead” followed up by “Food, Inc.” I ended up deciding that it was time to follow the lead of many other people I knew that had lost 40-60lbs and buy a copy of Four Hour Body.

I won’t lie, it wasn’t easy at first. The first few days are rough, and I consider Day Four to be “hell day” for most people. I don’t know what it is, but I bet it has to do with your body just freaking out because you haven’t been giving it all those starchy carbs for four days. But by Day Three I had noticed that without gluten (wheat), my allergies that I’d been battling for what seemed like forever were pretty much gone. GONE! My inflammation was down too, and since that was a huge, huge goal of mine, it made it easier to stick with it and just plow through.

Which brings us to today. I’ve lost 10.4 lbs, and I’m pretty damn happy about that, especially since I was traveling for 8 days last week! Now I’m moving towards my next goal, to have lost 20 lbs by WPPI in a month! (Which is completely possible in my mind if I stick with it.)

In the past month, I’ve heard every excuse under the sun from other people. You all realize that *I* have been using those same excuses for about 10 years now, right? Yeah, they are bunk. Stop it. You guys are always tell me things like, “I could give up (one item), but I could NEVER give up (another item)!!!” (Fill in the blank with flour, rice, potatoes or sugar.) Look, I loooooooove things made with flour. Matter of fact, my mouth is watering just typing that sentence. A good biscuit? I’m all over it. How about some well made tortillas? Divine! But the fact is, eating flour, sugar, rice or potatoes raises your blood sugar, causing your insulin to spike, causing you to get FAT. So if you don’t want to be fat, try giving them up. 30 days. It isn’t going to kill you, I promise. It is just 30 days – you can do anything for 30 days! But STOP giving me excuses for why you couldn’t. And don’t tell me that you can’t do it if you haven’t TRIED to do it.

Carbohydrates from starchy foods are what are making you fat. It is that plain & simple. Cut them and you’ll lose weight.

Things I have learned throughout this in no particular order:

  • After Day Four (aka HELL DAY), my normal cravings for carbs stopped. Feed your body enough meat, vegetables & beans and it will stop craving starchy carbs, the cheap whores of food.
  • If – and only if – I haven’t eaten enough or it has been too long, I then crave carbs. A few cashews or almonds stops the craving, and eating makes it go away completely.
  • Any time I eat gluten, I wake up congested the next morning. Have issues with allergies or inflammation? Try it.
  • Speaking of inflammation, did you know that Type II Diabetes and High Blood Pressure are both related to inflammation?
  • I stop losing weight when I eat cheese. Every time. Skipping cheese from now on.
  • I also seem to stall when I eat fruit. I have been doing one “binge day” a week (I prefer to call it a free day) and I save potatoes, fruit and cheese for that one day a week.
  • I can lose weight while I travel if I have control of my own meals.
  • I can stay steady at my weight loss while I travel when I don’t get to choose my own meals.
  • Gluten-free options are still full of starchy-carbs. (Cheap whores!) Ok on that binge day, but not ok the other six days of the week.
  • Binge days make me gain a pound normally, but ultimately I lose even more by the end of the week following. Plus they keep away the mentality of dieting sucks.
  • Veggies are my friend. I especially love a good spinach salad.
  • I’ve tried new foods and it didn’t kill me. People! This is a big deal for me!!!
  • If I “listen” to my body and eat as much as I want of meat, beans & vegetables, I will eat enough.

    • The biggest thing I’ve learned? I CAN DO THIS.

    At least three times in the past seven years I’ve tried to lose weight on a rather big scale. My goal was to lose 5lb a month – 1.2lb a week – and keep it off. It is all documented here on the blog. Every single time, I was miserable. Dieting in the modern meaning of the word SUCKS. I’m NOT on a diet. I am eating to lose weight. But I plan to keep eating this way for a loooooooong time after I’ve lost the weight. Because it doesn’t make me miserable and cranky. Who knew?!? A diet that won’t make you miserable!

    It brings it all back to what diet is supposed to mean – what you eat. Your dietary needs. Not the four letter word that diet has become!

    I’ve bought new jeans because my old ones don’t fit. The belly fat that has been plaguing me for years is melting away. All I have done is changed what I’m eating. Meats, beans (legumes) and leafy green vegetables. Lately I wake up craving meat or a salad. My how things can change in four weeks!

    10.4 lbs. I can hardly believe it. I don’t think I ever got past losing 10-15 lbs in all the times I’ve tried to diet in the past few years, and it was always an uphill battle to get there. Try this. It works!

    Categories
    Smaller Pink Cookie

    Oh, the Irony!

    I’ve been doing the Four Hour Body, slow carb, no white foods, whatever you want to call it diet for four weeks now, and sharing the adventures with you here.

    Yeah, that blog name of BigPinkCookie is pretty freakin’ ironic right about now, isn’t it?!?!!!

    But it is just going to have to stay that way. I guess I’ll dedicate it to the BigPinkCookie that I won’t be eating any time soon. Because after my revelations at ALT last week, there is NO WAY I’m adding another blog to my life!

    Off to wrap up editing from ALT and some other recent shoots! I’ll be sharing my 4 week results and my ALT round up in the next day or two!

    Categories
    Travel Notes

    Coming Home Again…


    It has been a whirlwind 8 days around here. First 3+ days in New Orleans for Imaging USA 2012. Then after only 12 hours home in Houston, I was off again to Salt Lake City for 3+ days at the ALT Design Summit, which was packed full of learning, revelations, and FUN.

    The big lightbulb moment for me came when I was asked if I wanted to be a photographer who blogged, or a blogger who is a photographer. I have so long been frustrated by feeling this big divide in my life. Feeling like I just abandoned this site 5 years ago when I started photographing weddings. It was never my intention, but that was how it played out. I want that to change. I want to write here again like I used to do.

    So I will. I will be a blogger that is a photographer again. And saying that makes my heart sing! I left ALT full of creative juices (and a TON of notes in my moleskine) and just wanting to MAKE things again. I forgot how beautiful that feels.

    Mother Nature cooperated with my plans, and I got some amazing photographs while on my flight home! The one above was taken as I flew from Salt Lake City down to Phoenix for the first leg of my flight today. The sky was completely full of clouds, making this crisp white line. As soon as I saw it, I saw this photograph in my mind. It brings me joy. [Taken with my iPhone, posted to Instagram with no filters.]

    How was your weekend? I hope it was as fabulous as mine! I can’t wait to share more about ALT!