17 January 2008

Facebook Fun

back in december i noticed someone on facebook was using one of my bonnaroo fountain shots as their profile pic. i was intrigued and slightly disturbed by this. well, upon further inquiry it was the guy who designed the fountain. "well that's cool," i thought. he had previously contacted me (soon after bonnaroo) about using any of my shots in his portfolio. i said sure. why wouldn't i? well, i uploaded those shots, but i never heard anything back from him so i assumed he forgot. then of course months later we arrive here. i add him as a friend, he asks me if i like his profile pic, i'm like, "of course." but no where on the page with the photo is my name (nor is it on any of the pages with my photos). this kind of bothers me (i dont need much credit, but some is necessary) so i write him about it and here is how the conversation goes... not the most productive talk:



i really tried to explain how i wasnt looking for much and that i was honored he liked the photos enough to display them, but i'm not sure anything came across other than "this guy (me) wants credit for my (his) fountain." i mean, did i do that poor of a job conveying my side? well, i didnt hear anything back and i checked the picture a couple times and nothing changed. "ah well," i thought.

well today i just randomly checked his profile and noticed he had the photos in his "photo sets" section:




all of them say this somewhere on them:



that's all i could think to say (just on that one, i didnt bother with the others). was he just ribbing me for giving him a hard time or was he really trying to piss me off? i still stand by what i said. the debate wasn't about who's art the fountain was. i doubt the architects of the empire state building expect to be referenced in every photo of it. honestly, when it comes to copryright/credit, i dont see how the contents of the photo are relevant at all. i guess he thought differently.

either way, i feel like i've needlessly made an enemy of the bonnaroo fountain designer guy. so, i've got that going for me.

3 comments:

Jesse E. Hunter said...

I think he's right--you're the best. :*

Anonymous said...

He's being a dick about it, but you are int he right. If his fountain rocked so much, why didn't he just use his own Kodak point and click camera to capture it in all its glory? You totally deserve credit, per copyright laws and all.

Speaking of photos--yours are awesome! I click over to your blog sometimes just to see what you have uploaded. I am always impressed. This semester, I am teaching a course at TTU that is dealing with a text _Ways of Reading Words and Images_. My students will read photography theory and apply it to images they encounter daily. It is really an awesome approach to a Freshman in college writing course, if I may say so myself :o). I've given my students ideas of where to hunt for expressive photos (e.g.-the Library of Congress site and some National Geographic galleries), but I am looking for some other places that contain great images. Do you have a place, other than your blog, that contains your pics? If so, i would love to give them the link so that they could all explore the photos for something that might link with their ideas/topic. And, trust me, they WILL give credit (in MLA format at that!). After all, the whole plagiarism deal applies even to images when you try to pass it off as your own work. Plagiarism can result in huge fine and even prison. You should tell that to fountain man!

Josh said...

i'm glad i didn't let YOU resolve this with him! probably would've ended in with a showdown at this year's bonnaroo!

ha. thanks for the support, summer. other than a regular few, i never know who actually checks on here, so it's always nice to hear from people. and thanks for the compliment on my pics (those never get old :) ).

as for places to look for pictures, my main inspiration is Flickr. there are countless SUPER talented photographers all over the world and the majority, i'd say, post their stuff on Flickr. there are other places i go for photography tips and ideas too, but for straight up photography, it's the best.

here's my Flickr page

(here are my "favorites" on there (what i strive for :) )

here's Flickr's Explore (which are the "most popular" photos of the day)

here's the Creative Commons photo section (which is the copyright dealing with online photos. there are many different copyrights and this has photos separated out by each.)

anywho, hope that helps. the class sounds really cool. sounds like something i wish i could've taken :) good luck with it and let me know if you ever have any more questions.