Pink Dogwood
Cornus florida var. rubra
(KOR-nus) (FLOR-ih-duh)
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This post is a tale of two pictures in more than one way. First are the pictures of my favorite flowering tree the Pink Dogwood. As I posted a few days ago we are working at a garden that has a lot of Pink Dogwoods planted. Although there are a lot of other things planted and some nice geographical figures in the garden the Dogwoods are clearly the pièce de résistance. They have just been coming out more and more the last couple of days and that has led to a pleasant working environment.
The tale of two pictures unfolds with one picture of the Dogwood underexposed and the other overexposed. Since the light was changing it was hard to get the exact right shutter speed. I usually always tend toward slight underexposure because that is easier to deal with post processing than overexposing. The flowers were so beautiful it is pretty easy to get something nice when you point the camera at them. People often ask me how do you take nice photos of flowers and my answer is usually start with a beautiful subject in good light first, that is half the battle.
The other story of two pictures is yesterday I received a nice email asking if someone from Iran could buy one of my pictures for a book cover. The photo had gotten lost in the shuffle when my other website had been upgraded a couple of months ago. The person had been trying to contact me but with the various filtering the government over there puts on the internet it was difficult for the person to even email me. Although Iran doesn’t participate in the copyright laws this person wants to do the right thing and buy the rights to the photo to use for their book. I am not sure if it will work out and if I can even snail mail them a copy on a CD if they can’t buy form the website. For now I am not showing which picture it is but will at a later date.
The other picture in the tale of two photos is a nursery whose website I was visiting looking for plants. While looking at the crabapple selections I found one of my pictures advertising a variety. It even had the watermark and copyright symbol on it. Before I blow the whistle on the user I will send them a cease and desist letter this weekend. If they do the right thing and remove the photo or at least post a link to my site you will never see their name here. If they don’t I will probably have to bad mouth them and get a little more serious. Some people just think that if a picture has been posted on the net they have the right to do whatever they want with it. This one got me a little more riled than usual because they are selling a commercial product with it.
6 comments:
The nerve! Let us know what the outcome is. BTW, I prefer the underexposed, it looks more moody.
I can't believe there are folks out there that take the copyrighted watermarked pictures.
While I am not sure I would call it moody, I like the darker one as well.
I really like both images of the dogwood.
And I cannot believe that a commercial site would use your photo without asking permission. Very unprofessional to say the least.
especially lovely and my favorite sandy
Thanks for the comments. I prefer he under exposed one myself. About someone using the picture. It happens all the time (once found several copies of a passion flower picture on Flicker with people claiming it as their own) I guess some people don't know any better.
I was shocked to read your story of a commercial site using your photos, WITH the copyright showing. Sheesh. More education is definitely needed, I guess.
Chris, if you overexpose, just pull it up in RAW and move that exposure slider. You will be flabbergasted! Email me if you want to discuss. It's the best thing about a higher-end camera.
Also, I have a pink dogwood out back just getting ready to pop. Gotta get out there in decent light and capture it properly!
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