rob valine

<p>The problem is as big as the Internet. People have no idea how much stuff is stolen without their knowing it. I once posted some fishing pictures on a nature site that could track downloads. They weren't even very good shots. The downloads were in the hundreds. You simply can't control what people do on the Internet. It's impossible. My advice is this, post your images at 72 DPI and at sizes of 750 x 500 or smaller. Images of that size cannot be used in print or sold in any way. They can only be used on the Internet or in emails. Another thing you can do is put text across the images in photoshop like I did here<br>

<a href="

That way when a blogger steals your image and posts it somewhere, he's giving you free advertising and free exposure. Make the thieves work for you. Turn it into something positive. You might even want to consider encouraging them to use your images that have your web address on them. Watermarks aren't even a speed bump to experienced thieves. I have the right click button disabled on my web site and friends have figured out how to steal the images. They haven't figured out how to remove the text across the images.<br>

Here's one just for the thieves<br>

<a href="

Rob Valine<br>

<p>I wanted to get some fly fishing photos a few years back and I got my gear together for a fly fishing trip to a local stream. I ride my motorcycle on fishing trips fairly often and that was the plan for this trip. I had my fly fishing gear in my vest. I used bungee cords to attach a 3 piece rod to the handle bars and more bungee cords to attach my camera bag to my luggage rack. Like I said, This is fairly routine and I've never had any problems in the past with this. On this particular trip it was a little different. I was anxious to get to one of my favorite streams and was travelling at a pretty good pace. On one of the roads about a mile from the stream I came around a bend to find a "Road Under Construction" sign in the road. Uh,Oh ! Not enough time to slow down. The road was being repaved and there was deep potholes everywhere. There was no way to avoid them. I stood up on the pegs to absorb some of the shock. The bike was bouncing around all over. I looked in my rear view mirror in horror to see my camera bag bouncing in the road behind me taking 4 foot leaps into the air at 45MPH. I thought for sure I would have smashed lenses. I had 4 lenses and a camera in the bag. It turned out that I had one damaged lens. It was a cracked lens barrel on a Yashica 50mm F1.9 lens. The glass was still OK. It still worked and I use it to this day. The camera bag had a bad case of road rash. But, everything else was fine. I got real lucky. I don't think I'm going to forget that experience anytime soon.</p>

<p>She's testing you to see if she can get something for free. If you plan on making a living as a photographer, get used to it. People do this all the time.</p>

<p>I also agree with Jeff. You may want to let the band that requested to use the photo on their site use it and ask for a credit and a possible link to your web site. It will direct traffic to your site and may lead to work. In any case, it's good exposure. Unknown people don't usually get paid unless they're incredibly talented or incredibly lucky. I shoot bands because I enjoy it, I'm a musician myself and it looks good in my portfolio. One way you might pick up a few bucks is to hand out business cards to every band you shoot. You will need a web site, It should be on your business card and tell them to look for the photos on your web site. If they like what they see they may want to buy prints or a photo CD of the show. I've found that some of the younger less experienced bands are the ones that usually want photos of themselves. National acts could care less about buying photos. They have photographers everywhere they go and get photos for free. If they need photography work they hire someone they know. If you can manage to sell photo CD's to the local bands it is reasonable to ask 40.00 or 50.00 for a good quality CD if your work is up to par. You'll need a sufficient amount of quality photos in order to do that. </p>

<p>OMG, This is absolutely utterly ridiculous. Hilarious actually.</p>

<p>Do you have a MySpace page and a Flickr page ? If you don't, you should. MySpace has an enormous music community and editors use Flickr to search for photos they need. Make sure you tag your flickr photos properly. Flickr is one of the most advanced search engines on the Internet right now. A web site is not enough to get you noticed today.<br>

<a href="http://www.MySpace.com/RobValine">www.MySpace.com/RobValine</a><br>

<a href="http://www.RobValineimages.com">www.RobValineimages.com</a><br>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/robvaline">www.flickr.com/people/robvaline</a><br>

MySpace is free and so is flickr. It costs 25.00 per year to set up a pro account on flickr and in my opinion it is well worth it. If you have talent and know how to promote yourself, people will notice you. You can add MySpace and Flickr to your list of places where you can get exposure. You can also blog there and meet other people in the industry. I've been published several times from being on Flickr and MySpace. That's something that wouldn't have happened if I were relying on a web site alone. </p>

<p>I've never refunded a deposit. But, you're in a unique situation. You already have time involved with meeting with these people, going through your portfolio and planning. Being that you do business with this person, It might be in your best interests to offer other services and give them credit for their deposit. That may be the best approach to keeping the friendship alive and keeping future business options open. It couldn't hurt to make the offer. A portrait sitting might be the best approach.</p>

<p>I got my certificate from NYIP in February of 2001 and thought it was a very good course. Of course much of what you do as a photographer depends on what you decide to do after you finish your course. A school can't make or break you. But, I would highly recommend NYIP. It's a great way to start and a fun course.<br>

Rob Valine<br>

<a href="http://www.RobValineimages.com">www.RobValineimages.com</a><br>

<a href="http://www.MySpace.com/RobValine">www.MySpace.com/RobValine</a></p>

 

<p>My suggestion is buy a Yashica FX-3 Super 2000 used on ebay. You can probably get one for about 30.00. Then you look for Vivitar Series One lenses with a Yashica mount. These lenses are very high quality and very inexpensive. I have the Viviitar Series One 28-90mm F2.8-3.5 macro lens and the Vivitar Series One 70-210mm F3.5 lens. Both very good lenses. I also use this camera with the Tamron 90mm F2.5 Macro lens and I have a Yashica 50mm F1.9 normal lens. Add a Vivitar 2X teleconverter and you have a very versatile low cost kit. For a flash I use the Vivitar 283 on the Yashica. I've been buying all of my gear used from ebay. This is a great time to be a film photographer because top pro gear is available used at very low prices on ebay. I've shot with many cameras and lots of lenses. The Yashica FX-3 never stops working. Mine fell off my motorcycle at 45 MPH and bounced in the road behind me when I hit a pothole. It still works and I still use it.<br>

My list of cameras includes :<br>

1 Nikon F100<br>

2 Contax Aria bodies<br>

1 Contax G2<br>

1 Yashica FX-3 Super 2000<br>

1 Petri 7S<br>

2 Canonet 28 bodies<br>

1 Canonet QL17 GIII<br>

I shoot more with the Yashica than anything else I own because it's quick and easy to use and can take a beating. I get professional results with the Vivitar series one lenses.<br>

Rob Valine<br>

<a href="http://www.RobValineimages.com">www.RobValineimages.com</a></p>

<p>I just got done uploading a batch of test photos to flickr that were shot on a Canonet 28 that I bought on ebay for $18.00. The film I used was TMax 100 and it was 4 years and 8 months past expiration. You can check them out in my "Canonet 28" set.<br>

<a href="http://flickr.com/photos/robvaline/sets/72157612229334515/">http://flickr.com/photos/robvaline/sets/72157612229334515/</a><br>

The motto of the story is..... Don't sweat the expiration date. I shoot expird film all the time. It's cheaper on ebay. ............. A lot cheaper.</p>

<p>I have the Zeiss/Contax 500mm F8 Mirotar and I love it ! It's lightweight and easy to handhold. It's also a very sharp lens. The trick is to try to keep everything in focus as much as possible. Out of focus highlights will produce doughnuts. I briefly owned the Vivitar 500mm F8. It was a cheapie and it was very difficult to get anything useable from it. There are good mirrors and there are cheap mirrors. I find the good ones to be very useful. Like any lens, you have to get used to their strengths and weaknesses and try to make the most of them.<br>

Here's a sot that I did with the Zeiss Mirotar 500mm F8 <br>

<a href="

and Here's a shot from the Vivitar 500mm F8<br>

<a href="

Both were hand held.</p>

<p>I've been using the Vivitar series One 28-90mm F2.8-3.5 and the Vivitar series One 70-210 F3.5 lenses for years. Both excellent lenses. To see photos I've taken with the 28-90, Go to my web site and do a search with "Vivitar series 1 28-90mm lens" and the photos that are tagged will come up. By the way, the 28-90 is my most used lens out of everything I own and I a sizeable collection of lenses.<br>

Rob Valine<br>

<a href="http://www.RobValineimages.com">www.RobValineimages.com</a></p>

<p> </p>

<p>I once paid for a lead with a wedding web site that turned out to be a teenager posing as a bride. She was writing a paper for school and put a listing on a bridal site. She was trying to get an idea of what photographers charge for weddings. She probably didn't realize that the photographers have to pay for those leads. Not to mention the cost of out of town phone calls to try to set up meetings with perspective clients. I finally reached her mother by phone and was told of her daughters scheme after several weeks of phone calls and emails. All a complete waste of my time and money. She would have been much better off just to call some photographers to see if someone might take the time to answer a few of her questions. Kids do strange things. The real hoaxes are the people that want to hire you and send you a deposit without knowing anything about you. It's usually someone that says they're coming from another country. Then they cancel the trip and ask for a refund after you've cashed their check. When you return their money, you find out that the original check they sent you was fake. I get suspicious immediately if someone is too anxious to hire me or doesn't really know anything about me.</p>

Check out www.Betterphoto.com I've been using a site with them for about 3 years and it's been trouble free. Love it ! You can check out my web site at www.RobValineimages.com

There's also the free ones you can set up at

www.MySpace.com

and www.Flickr.com

I use MySpace, Flickr and photo.net to direct traffic into my web site. The forums at these sites and the networking are great ! I just set up a pro account at Flickr.com and have been blogging my butt off. I'm also a subscriber at photo.net.

I had the same problem with Eclipse smearing around and leaving spots. I managed to get the spots off with a lens pen. I also use ROR cleaning fluid and have never had any troubles with that. I think it's a lot better than eclipse for lens cleaning. The Everclear grain alcohol sounds interesting. I've never tried that.

I've used several cleaners over the years and ROR has been the best I've ever used.

This was done with Royal Gold 400. I liked Royal Gold and I liked Supra. Both good films that I used quite a bit. I

liked the Royal Gold because of the saturation of colors. Fine grain was a plus too.

 

<a href=" title="Lake Ontelaunee Sunset by rob_valine, on

Flickr"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/112/307228362_c23283dc9b.jpg" width="500" height="333"

alt="Lake Ontelaunee Sunset" /></a>

I use a Nikon Coolscan V ED for 35mm. I haven't started shooting digital because I don't see a need for it. Slides are

easy to store and scan and can last a lifetime. There's also no need to make a million back up copies.

One more thing Alex....... Don't expect anyone on the guest list to be your friend or be a witness for you. They are more likely to go against you and side with the bride and groom. After they were on the guest list and are their friends. The limo driver, DJ, wedding coordinator and minister are much more likely to take your side. I think it's probably best to work with an assistant or second shooter just so you have a witness on your side. I had a groom that told me he had people prepared to lie for him and tell people I ran out of film and left the wedding to go look for film. I never ran out of film and/or left the wedding.

Alex, Your best bet is to continue working as an assistant until you have more experience in dealing with these kinds of people. A more experienced photographer can help you a lot in guidance and suggestions. Also, knowing a good contract lawyer is a must. People agree to things and completely forget what they agreed to. This is why we have contracts and lawyers. People will tell you things at the wedding when they are drinking and later have no clue what they said. It happens a lot. Then there are some people who will deliberately give you a hard time to see what they can get free of charge. They are chronic complainers who think that's the best way to get a good deal. Those kinds of people could care less about you or the circumstances that you work under.

I usually shoot bands free and give them a business card with my web site address on it. They can check for their

photos on my web site. Sometimes they want to buy photos and/or CD's of shows. Usually the young bands that are

just starting out want photos of themselves. National acts don't care about photos because people shoot them free

and post photos everywhere. The only way they'll hire someone is if they need a CD cover or something like that. I

got into shooting bands mainly as a way of directing traffic into my site. Most of the photographers I know that are

getting paid to shoot bands are working for magazines or agencies.

Very good suggestion Sarah, The only thing is that people are pretty creative about coming up with ways to burn a

photographer. You would probably have to update your contract every time they figure out a new way. A friend of

mine has customers sign a statement of satisfaction after the contract has been fulfilled. That covers a lot of ground

and prevents people from coming back years later to complain about something they found. I've noticed that quite a

lot of the chronic complainers are happy at the first viewing of their proofs. They tend to look for things and after a few

days or weeks can find several things to complain about. Some people are ridiculously critical and have no clue of

the pressures that wedding photographers shoot under. Some people expect a masterpiece from every photo. We

have to work quickly and often under very difficult conditions with people that are less than cooperative. Any number

of things can go wrong. Bad lighting, People late always, People fighting, Children crying and refuseing to cooperate,

etc., etc., etc. We're not living in a forgiving society. Even if the photographer does the best work that he or she is

capable of producing under the circumstances. The mindset of most people is that we paid you and you should

produce excellent results each and every time. The customer never wants to hear that they were responsible for the

outcome of their photos if there is a problem.

That would be a gross misconception Ellis. If that's your idea of fun, you can have all of it. I'd also like to say that

several people mentioned screening out possible troublesome clients. It's not always easy to do. Most clients are

wonderful until it comes time for the final payment. That's when you find out what they're really like. It's when they try

to chisel you for everything they can get for free and they start to come up with imaginary reasons why they should

get refunds. We're living in tough times. People overspend for weddings and can't stay within their budgets because

everyone wants a wonderful wedding. When people do this, they try to make up for it by trying to see how much they

can avoid paying the photographer. Some people are more creative than others at this. In my opinion this is

happening a lot and it has nothing to do with the photographer doing his/her job properly or not. I have a number of

friends in the wedding business and I've heard their stories. It goes with this business. Anyone that is in it long

enough is going to get one like this sooner or later. I like the brides that call you 5 years after you shoot their

wedding complaining about something that's wrong with one of their photos and wanting you to fix it for free or the

ones that disappear without a trace oweing you money and call 2 or 3 years later wanting to buy the rest of their

package that they never received. I had one like that a few months ago. When I told her there was a remaining

balance due, She vanished again and I haven't heard from her. People are amazing. Somebody should write a book

about funny or stupid wedding stories as seen from the photographers viewpoint. It would probably be one of the

funniest books ever written.

I know I just about wrote a book here. But, these kinds of weddings are the ones you never forget. Anyway, I forgot to mention that they also sliced up my motorcycle seat with a razor knife. I don't have any proof they did it. But, I'm certain. I worked with the mother of the bride. She was a former supervisor of mine. She got fired just before the wedding. No big surprise, she tried to sue for getting fired. I was told she has a history of sueing former employers and took 3 of them to court. Anyway, My bike got cut up in the parking lot at work after the brides mother was fired. It costs 300.00 to replace the seat with a new one.

I had one like this about 2 years ago that turned into a 6 month battle. Nothing I could do would please them no matter what it was. The groom told me that he had witnesses that were williing to testify that I ran out of film and had to leave the wedding to go look for film. That was a blatant lie. The Minister had such a bad time that he offered to be a witness for me if I had to go to court and asked if I wanted to be a witness to an anullment. The bride was heard to say "We have to follow all these stupid rules because of a Jew that died." meaning Jesus, in a catholic church. They didn't want to follow the rules of the church and gave the minister such a bad time that I felt sorry for him. When I called to set up an appointment for formals in my studio and left messages on 3 answering machines, they told me I deliberately called when I knew nobody would be home. That's absurd. They argued that they were entitled to the negatives. My contract states that I retain the negatives and the customer can order enlargements from me. They tried to change the contract after the wedding to get whatever they wanted. Before I left the wedding I asked all family members if there was anyone that I overlooked that they would like photos of. They said "No, you did a great job." Later they complained that I didn't have photos of the grandmothers. Nobody told me they would be there. On the way to the ceremony the limo driver was doing 70 MPH and running red lights because they were late. Nobody told him that there were 7 cars following him. He lost 3 cars. They were part of the wedding party and the wedding was 30 miles out of town. I had to jump out of my car and run up to him at a red light to tell him that there were 7 cars following him. Despite the fact that I showed up an hour and a half ahead of schedule at the brides house, I didn't get many pictures because 1 hairdresser was doing hair and make up for 7 girls. They took forever and then the bride and her mother started to fight. The bride was crying and a mess. Not good for photos. I got a few shots of her running to the limo when she was finally ready. Later they complained that I didn't take enough pictures at the house. Duh ! It was all but impossible. The limo driver offered to be a witness to this in my favor. The groom never smiled once throughout the wedding and reception. I was there 12 hours. They told me they were tired of having their photos taken and didn't want to be bothered. They couldn't find their daughter for shots of the wedding party and told me "Don't worry about her, She's with my mother somewhere" They didn't want to look for her. Later they complained that I didn't take the pictures with the daughter in them. When I delivered the photos, the mother asked me where was the trick photos ? I had no clue what she was talking about. She said other photographers take trick photos. She pulled out a wedding album that was about 30 years old and started saying "Why didn't you do this ? Why didn't you do that ?" Uh Gee, Maybe because you and your daughter were busy having a boxing match. This was my wedding from Hell. These people were absolutely horrible. The bride, her mother and the groom took turns emailing me and calling me daily for 6 months. I stopped taking their calls and stopped answering their emails. The mother sent for a price list from my lab and album company to figure out exactly what my costs were to shoot the wedding. The mother reported me to the better business bureau. They kept asking for things for free saying I owed it to them for not doing a good job. A friend of mine who has been in the wedding business over 30 years saw their photos and told me that there was nothing wrong with the pictures. He said they're trying to get in your pockets. The thing that really burns me up is that they got away with what they did. The father of the bride was a contracter. He knew contract law. They missed 3 appointments in my studio and insisted that I meet them at their house. Contract law changes in Pennsylvania when you sign a contract in the customers home. I wasn't aware of this. There's a consumer protection law that states if you sign a contract in a customers home, You must provide in writing that they have 3 days to change their mind and cancel the contract. If you don't do this they are entitled to a full refund at any time. I showed up an hour and a half early at the brides house, I shot the wedding and reception (A 12 hour day) I delivered 143 5"x 7" proofs and only had 1 bad photo. I delivered a proof book and an engraved album. The only thing I didn't deliver was the enlargements because I was starting to have too much trouble with them. Anyway, they decided to get a lawyer and told me they wanted a full refund and wanted to give me everything back. They had the pictures 6 months and probably made digital copies of everything. I contacted a lawyer. He told me to settle with them because if I went to court I would lose and have to pay court costs. This was an 1895.00 wedding. I made them an offer of 1000.00 refund and they could have the negatives. They took it. The 895.00 I made barely covered my expenses. This should give you an idea of what people are capable of when they decide to burn you. The wedding business can be very ugly and unpleasant. Be prepared to take off the gloves and go at it with these people. Be ready to contact witnesses. Have a good lawyer that's familiar with contract law. Have friends in the business that can help you in this because you will need their advice. Don't give this bitch anything she didn't pay for. I was a wedding photographer for about 7 years. After this I decided to take some time off. I've only shot one wedding since. It's been about 2 years. I was shooting 10 to 15 a year. If you shoot weddings long enough, you will eventually run into the bride or mother from hell. It's just a matter of time. I have friends who have left weddings for fear of their safety. Where family members started throwing beer bottles at each other. I shot a biker wedding where the bride and groom got into a wrestling match in a muddy field with the best man and maid of honor. Too much alcolhol I guess. The friend I told you about that's been in the business 30 years carries a gun. He has a permit to carry and carries one when he shoots weddings. In 30 years I think he's probably seen just about everything imaginable. Anyway, Good luck with this situation. I hope you have better luck with your bride from hell than what I did with my situation.