david_ditzel3

Bill Mitchell, the United States Copyright laws benefit and protect the work of all creative people wether you are a photographer or a large movie company. Would you please explain your opinion as to why H.R. 2391 RS is a detriment to the public? Your opinion is respected and could lead to a great discussion.

Action Required-

Contact your Senators immediately and urge them to pass H.R. 2391, The

Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2004. Congress reconvenes on

November 16 for a "lame duck" session-giving photographers one last

chance at improving copyright law in 2004. You can contact your

Senators (and get a sample e-mail) at

http://capwiz.com/ppaworld/issues/alert/?alertid=6599801&type=CO

Even better, write your own unique message via letter and mail it

directly to your senator - address information located at

http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

 

Key Points

The Intellectual Property Protection Act combines provisions from

several bills that PPA and the Copyright Defense have been fighting

for during this Congress. Here are the provisions of H.R. 2391 RS that

are most applicable to the rights of professional photographers:

 

-Infringers will no longer be able to use innocent errors in a

copyright registration to invalidate the registration.

 

-Department of Justice may elect to bring civil copyright suits

against infringers - with damage awards going to the copyright owner

as restitution.

 

-Eliminates registration requirement for infringement actions by the

U.S. Government

 

-Allows courts to treat parts of a collective work as individual works

for statutory damages purposes.

 

-Creates a program to educate the public regarding the importance of

intellectual property and the harms associated with infringement.

 

-Authorizes at least $15 million for criminal copyright investigations

in 2005.

 

-Makes it easier to prove damages in criminal prosecutions against

online infringers

 

-Allocates $2 million for better training of U.S. Attorney's Office

personnel on intellectual property issues.

Acting now is significant. When the new Congress begins in January,

all unpassed legislation from 2003 and 2004 will be wiped out -

leaving the lobbying process to start all over again.

 

Again, we urge you to contact your Senators in support of this

legislation by going to:

http://capwiz.com/ppaworld/issues/alert/?alertid=6599801&type=CO OR

http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ and writing and mailing your own

unique message.

Don, I am in a similar position as you with an established career in a different field, very experienced with photography, and I wanted to make a living as a photographer. I decided to take the education route and attended RIT to get my BFA in Professional Photographic Illustration while working full time. This past May I graduated and can say for me the education was great and I enjoyed every minute of it. What the education did for me was give me more experience, direction, helped me understand the photography business better, improved my portfolio and skills, and created a network of people that I can call on. Was the education necessary? No, but it sure helped me tremendously as I begin my quest in my new career.

 

Would I recommend more education for you? Only you can decide that. Education never hurt anyone and it can't be taken away from you once you have it. Maybe the best thing for you to do is decide where your weaknesses are and get some education in those specific areas while you continue to build your business. One thing I would recommend is a class that requires human interaction rather than an online course. Attending photo critiques with knowledgeable and experienced peers is one of the greatest learning tools. I do not think you will get this same experience from NYIP but I have not taken a class from them either.

 

I hope this helps you with your decision. If you have any questions feel free to email me. Good luck on your journey!

You will need to add a firewire card if you do not already have firewire connections.

Has anyone heard if any manufacturers will be announcing new mediuum

format film scanners at Photokina?

Did you check http://www.craigcamera.com/ ?

Cole, You will be glad you attended school when you finally go. The cost and had work does pay off. While traveling around for a year, think about what kind of photography you want to study (photo journalism, fine art, advertsing) and look at all the schools before making your decision. Good luck.

There is more to the photography business than shooting for a few editorial magazines a couple months a year. Take your parents advice and get an education in photography. An college degree will get you further ahead in the long run and will increase your earning potential. I had more years of experience in photography than you have living when I returned to school to get my degree in photography and I learned a great deal all four years of my degree. Believing you won?t learn much because you have a little experience is arrogant and foolish.

I paid more than double that price for a single credit hour with a single class costing over $2000. My education was worth every penny. Consider yourself lucky!

Basic Photographic Materials and Processes, Second Edition

by Leslie D. Stroebel, Richard D. Zakia, Ira Current, John Compton

ISBN: 0240804058

 

This book is used as a text at RIT. Everything you need to know about the photographic process in detail.

This same situation happened to me on a job and I tried to correct the scanned images in Photoshop as well. The conversion results were ok but it took more fiddling around than it took to re-shoot the job. For the time it would take to color correct all your vacation images you would be better off taking your new wife on a second week long honeymoon. She would be thrilled and with the brownie points you encrue you can get away with buying yourself a new Leica oufit.

FYI for Tech pan users. Kodak has announced the discontinuance of

Technical Pan Film. The suggested replacement is Delta 100. Oops! I

mean Tmax 100. The discontinuance schedule is as follows:

December 2004 - 120 format,TP120.

April 2005 - 35mm format, TP135-6 & TP442 150ft roll.

June 2005 - 4x5 & 8x10

 

Remaining inventory will be sold until depleted.

I agree with everything Brooks and Jonathan have said. Four years ago while in my early 30's and well established in a career, I returned to school to obtain a BFA in Professional Photographic Illustration from RIT. This was a career change for me and everyone thought I was crazy except for my wife who was very supportive of my efforts. Recently I graduated and must say that the educational experience for my photography degree was one of the best experiences of my life. Four years were dedicated to doing photography with people that love photography. Entering school I already had 95% of the technical photographic knowledge that I needed to graduate. What I did learn was a great deal about art history, art theory, and the business of photography. Not to mention I learned the most about myself, and the direction I want to head as a photographer. Now as a graduate, I am more marketable as an assistant and have enough knowledge that I will not be assisting for very long before I go off on my own. You cannot substitute the educational experiences you will have at a great photography school, nor can you substitute the experience of assisting. Please don't deprive yourself of a college education in a field that you love.

I prefer Ilford Delta 3200 exposed at IE 1250 and developed in Rodinal 1:25. I like sharp grain, but if want a little less of it I will develop in Xtol 1:1.

I service many different brands of printers and have the ability to compare the output quality of these. From a customer service, economy, reliability, and quality standpoint in laser printers, Hewlett Packard is the winner in my book. Although, if you are looking for photographic quality black and white prints buy a good inkjet printer from Epson. I would stay away from Lexmark and Xerox products because of poor customer service and repair parts availability.

An interesting thing about the manufacturers edge printing on sheet film that I never noticed is that the color transparency films from Kodak and Fuji (EPP & RDP) have edge printing in addition to the coded notches. The little bit of b & W sheet film (HP5)I have exposed does not have any edge printing. Who would have thunk it? You learn something new everyday.

If the film is clear but the manufacturers name is visible on the edge of the film after developing then the problem was in the exposure. If there is no edge printing on the film then your problem was in developement. Test your developer by developing a piece of film in white light, 35mm film leader works good for this. If the film comes out black then your developer is fine.

Angela, is your true passion with the science of photography, the art of photography, or both? A career in photography can be had either as a photo scientist,a fine art or commercial photographer, or a digital retoucher. If you can explain what it is you like about photography the answer you get will be more directed to satisfy your desires.

SInar has some manuals on line at http://www.sinar.ch/sinar/default.htm

Although fictious, look at David Levinthal's books "Hitler Moves East" or "Mein Kampf". Also, William Wegman did some childrens books as well like "Little Red Riding Hood". There are also many people creating digital journals to document their lives. Do a google search for "digital diary" or "digital journal".These are just a few that I pulled of the top of my head but there are many more. I will post them as I think of them. Good luck.

Although you might get some great responses from the internet, I suggest calling on a few commercial photographers in your area. Pick a few names out of the yellow pages and set up a time to meet them in their studio. You will be suprised at how willing they will be to help you out. Also by visiting their studio you will get a better idea as to what the business is like. I am sure they would even let you hang around for a shoot. Good luck with your project.

Daniel, if you can tell us about the problems you have had in the past we might be able to give you a more specific answer. Your past problems may not be with your camera exposure.

One great advantage to attending a school like RIT is that you have the opportunity to gain professional experience with digital photography. RIT has a variety of top of the line digital camera backs, computers, scanners, lights, and cameras by the major manufacturers. This experience will make you more marketable in a city like NYC (or any city) where you can get a job as a digital assistant making $400 a day as opposed someone who is a gaffer with little digital experience making $200 a day. Yes photography can be learned on your own but it is very difficult and the learning curve is long. Also, it is almost impossible to gain experience on such a wide variety of digital equipment when a digital camera back costs $15,000. Sure the education is expensive but it is something that cannot be taken away from you and it will shorten your learning curve making you marketable sooner. A worst-case scenario is that if you fail as a photographer upon graduation, you can always return to school and get a masters degree in another field. The alternative is that if you try to make it in the photography business without a college education and you fail, you are only left with only the life experience.

 

As far as Rochester being described as ugly and boring; sure there are nicer places to live. Although, if you attend RIT you won�t have much free time to realize what a bland place it is. Rochester is a great city to learn in. Upon graduation in four years you will most likely move on to another city that you find attractive and you will appreciate that place much more.

Try Frank Marshman at Camera Wiz, 169B Pleasant Hill Road, Harrisonburg, VA 22801. Phone 1800-471-8133. Frank may not convert the camera to 120 roll film but he does work on obsolete cameras and he may have some suggestions for you. Frank is a great guy and his prices are fair. He gave my Zeiss Contaflex a CLA and it has worked great for years. Please post your results because I have a Medallist that I was considering bringing back into service. Good luck.

I prefer the Storm cases over Pelican cases because the latches on the Storm cases have a release making them easier to open. The Storm cases also have layered foam cubes that are easy to pluck out to fit the case for your needs. Other than those differences, the cases are very similiar in construction. Look at http://www.casesforless.com/ for decent prices on both Storm and Pelican cases.