Week 18 - 365 Day Challenge 2013

Day 119 - Picture windows

It was a confusing week in more ways than one. I have my albums for 365 days divided into months on Binford-Bell Studio Fan Page on Facebook and into weeks in my picture files on my computer and here on my blogger posts. Then I have to know which day numerically in the year. I got off a day somewhere in April and that meant I got off my months in albums. To make matters worse I always end up with more photos in my weekly files than I actually post. I am going to blame it on April. April is always chaos.

Day 120

April is the off season in the high country. Because of mud and flood season not only do tourists not want to come but locals take themselves off to somewhere else. But this year due to lack of snow there was no mud and flood and we found ourselves wishing for it. It is still very much an erratic spring and so there are days it is just much nicer to sit in the studio at the computer and process photos taken on a nice day. Much of this week was a visual return to Trinidad, Colorado. And some of them have been posted in other forms in an album entitled Trinidad.

Day 121 - Lady of the Wall

The photographer supposedly owns the image regardless of how many configurations the artist puts it through. But define own. As I found out in a TED talk copyright does not apply to many creative endeavors like fashion or photography. The dividing line with copyright seems to be whether it is utilitarian like clothing or part of the creative process like a painting.Some argue that our ability to copy and compete generates more creativity. But clearly far less income. Best course is obviously to never let your large resolution images out of your control.

Day 122 - Alien

The argument can be made that the more your images get around the more known you are especially if you get credit for it. And photography is not all utilitarian these days. We are not just recording war images. And when a photographer goes into the dry darkroom of their computer they cross the line into digital painting. Should your unique manipulation of an image anyone one with a camera could have taken be subject to copyright?

Day 123 - Lift off

So this sculpture being displayed on a street in Trinidad would be able to receive copyright protection but would my image of it? Certainly not the one I uploaded from my Nikon because I imagine this sculpture or sign has been photographed tons of times.

Day 124 - Cut and Dry

Maybe that is why most photographers sell their work cheap. To discourage those that would simply steal it. But we can also sell the same image multiple times. Limited edition runs provide some value to the buyer and that the photographer oversees the printing process. And if I carefully horde my original images I can modify it again and re-introduce it. It is all about the original image, and I frankly think every photographer of has an unique eye. Who of us cannot pick out an Ansel Adams even if it isn't one of his iconic images?

Day 125 - In Memory of the one who left

And that artistic eye is not just in what we choose to record on the flash drive of the camera but what we produce in the dry darkroom of our computers. And Ansel Adams did manipulate his images but in a wet darkroom.

Day 126 - Tres Amigos

So why does week 18 have eight images? Because I got off count somewhere. Try to see it like a baker's dozen. The first post of week 19 is pond scum. Hey, you will have to see it to appreciate it.