photography

As a Catholic who's worked in many different media fields (newspapers, photography, video production, and web development), I've seen a very wide array of copyright violations, improper media usage, and misuse of licensed assets. This seems to happen more in the non-profit world, where there is little or no budget for acquiring stock images, etc.

I'm extremely generous with my licensing for photos and other media I produce; typically, if someone asks to use a photo of mine, I'll send them a full-resolution JPEG and a license that allows them to use it for any non-profit cause.

However, what really gets under my skin is when I find my photos (especially) used in YouTube videos, for articles, and on posters, when I have never even been asked for permission, and when the photos clearly have 'All rights reserved' or some form of Creative Commons license.

The lifted photo.

Today, on Facebook, I noticed that 'Catholic Church' posted a video on YouTube about vocations (titled Life rooted in God...), and I know the first photo used in that video (a photo of now-Bishop Rice) was used without permission, and I'm pretty sure many of the other photos were, as well.

What the producers of these videos and other media don't realize is that:

1. It took me a long time to produce that photo (getting some time in Msgr. Rice's schedule, gathering the equipment, setting up the equipment, taking some 20-40 photos, processing said photos, and retouching the final photo).
2. It required the use of over $2,000 of photography equipment (taking professional-quality photos is not free, and isn't done on one's mobile phone).
3. Msgr. Rice never signed a photo release to allow the use of his photo in any videos (so, I could not have even given permission for this photo to be used in a public YouTube video).

Please, please, PLEASE try to always ask permission to use any photos, videos, sounds, music, etc. that is not in the public domain. Please respect the media owners' licensing restrictions and copyright.

In the end, don't steal other people's work, even if it's for a good cause. The ends, in Catholic morality, never justify the means!

I took this photo from the ground at Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) in Chicago, IL over the weekend. I also took a bunch of HD videos from the SkyDeck that I'll be putting together into a few minutes of video. Truly a majestic building, and I wonder if we'll ever see something taller in the U.S. Seems our architectural prowess is taking a back seat to the rest of the world lately.

As an aside, if the iPhone 4 takes pictures of this quality, I can't wait to get an iPhone 4S and ditch my Nikon D7000 for many of my trips. While using a 50mm f/1.4 inside in a dim room and still getting nice shots is awesome, having a camera that's always with me and gets 'pretty good' shots is also awesome. I hope to get a 4S soon!

During part of a driving tour of ancient Rome this year, our (my wife's and my) tour guide drove us to a small courtyard on one of the hills near the Colosseum. As he parked the car, I noticed two rather serious looking militia with automatic weapons standing in the courtyard—and I hoped they weren't there for me! They had their fingers over the triggers the whole time I was there, though they seemed friendly enough as we passed by on our way to a mysterious door.

The tour guide told us that there was a delightful treat waiting for us; he told us to look into a small keyhole, not a half inch in diameter, and see what we could see. It was obvious many people had touched the door around the keyhole, so it had to be a somewhat popular thing to do.

My own suspicions made me hesitate from putting my eye to the hole—whenever I'm told to do something touristy, like rub the belly of a bronze Billiken statue, I remember what college kids did to such statues—but when my eye came into focus, I saw a brilliant and beautiful sight. A sight that cannot be adequately captured by a camera:

(View at original size, to see what's in the very middle)

I was quite taken aback, as was my wife! This is one of the little treats you will miss if you only visit the main 'touristy' attractions around Rome. Apparently, the Knights of Malta (an order of Knights that has existed since the Crusades, and is still active—albeit less of a fighting order nowadays), have curated a beautiful garden so symmetrically and perfectly for quite some time, along a straight path to the dome of St. Peter's Basilica!

If you want to take a better picture than I did, use a long lens (120mm+), and set your focus manually to infinity. Expose for the dome of the basilica, and then bring up the foliage and door in post, by lightening the shadows. I only had my 18-35mm lens, so I had to shoot wide.

More history here and here. Larger image here.

This is a panorama shot from the top of St. Peters Basilica in Rome (the Cupola is the Dome).

The image is 9611x2937, and if you view the original, you can see details down to some of the furthest buildings—such as the two small domes of St. Maria Maggiore, the dome of the Pantheon, the 'Wedding Cake' (Monument to Vittorio Emmanuele II), and more! If you zoom in, you can also see the cars driving to and from St. Peter's Square.

I shot this image series on a stormy day in March with my Nikon D7000. I stitched the images together with Adobe Photoshop CS5.

The image below was taken today (March 19, 2011) at the Church of St. Alphonsus in Rome, Italy. This icon is the original icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, and depicts Mary holding the child Jesus, with two angels on either side of them.