New poem and old photo published in Cirque Literary Journal: Black and White

Just had this poem published in Cirque Literary Journal, Winter Solstice, 2014. The print copy is wonderful to hold in your hands and read, filled with writers from the Pacific Northwest. Excellent layout, good writing, great photos and illustrations. You can find their Facebook page HERE. Or go HERE to get your printed copy!

Black and White (revised, 12.24.14)

I spend this morning in in my office visiting Alaska,

clearing dust from a snow-covered mountain

brilliant in the low winter sun.

Thirty below, hundreds of spots, dirt

and scratches: abrasions of twenty winters,

landslides, thaws, freezes – disfigurements

of age. I wonder if ridges and slopes

have sloughed and fallen, baring rock, scouring trees

with draughts of compressed air, changing the landscape

    forever.

Finished, I pretend to stand again in a darkroom –

scent of fixer mingles with crisp day,

numbing my nostrils. I ask Ansel to bless this,

my latest effort to visualize zones as I remember,

performance complete with a last mouse click –

burning highlights, maintaining texture in the whites;

dodged shadows distill the cold past into clean,

   cruel tones of now.

I am reminded of all that is seen

and gone missing in the frosted glass;

even Ansel can’t bring it back, can’t make what was reappear –

instead, a sharp rendering makes me draw breath,
   full of cold air and light.

Photographing Tulips

Here's day twenty-three's: submission for NaPoWriMo (a poem a day for the month of April in honor of National Poetry Month):

Photographing Tulips

If the roof of my car crumples

because I climb upon it

to get a better angle on a photograph

what the hell will happen

if it rolls over in an accident?

I thought this today as I watched a young man

with two cameras slung over his shoulders

stand, ankle deep in the roof of his Jeep

as he photographed the tulip fields south of town.

I was photographing too, from the ground.

I recalled Ansel Adams

put a top of solid plywood

on the roof-rack of his station wagon

so he could see the world from new heights,

reflected on the glass of his 8x10 view camera –

a new perspective hidden under the dark cloth

of an upside-down, reversed scene.

He shot ‘Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico’

from up there.

“If I could get a shot like that,”

the young man was probably thinking,

“it’s worth bumping my head

all the way home.”

Photo Contest - ASMI Replies

Photo Contest Reply: Tyson Fick replied to my letter with understanding and a goodly amount of reasonableness, all things considered. Good for him:

Hi Mr. Dixon,

Thank you for your email... I’m... sorry to hear of your disappointment with the contest rules. I want to assure you that I am not trying to scam anyone or be deceitful. Nor is it my intention to disallow someone from selling marketable photos that might be entered in the contest. We are no strangers to paying for photography services and every year we spend a lot of money on photography and photo usage rights with a number of professional photographers. We will continue to spend a lot of money on photography and video going forward with or without a photo contest. But, you rightly pointed out that this is more of an amateur photo contest and we don’t expect many if any professional photographers will enter. And it is true that we are looking for a way of expanding the library of usable images while engaging with people around Alaska. We have run contests like this in the past and this language was suggested by our copyright attorney.

I’ve been directed by my board to get unlimited usage rights on newly purchased photos since the patchwork of usage agreements and promotion partners had gotten pretty unmanageable. Maybe we can do a better job on the contest rules language so that ASMI can use and share the photos without further permission or expense while the photographer retains copyright and the ability to sell images elsewhere and would be happy for a suggestion while we take look at amending the language.

I’m happy to talk about it any time. If you want to call, my number is below.

Best fishes,

Tyson Fick

Communications Director

Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute

and my reply in turn:

I appreciate your prompt and thoughtful reply. I'm glad you understand the issue, and I appreciate that you continue as an organization to purchase photos. I think your suggestion of improving the contest language so photographers don't give up all their rights to the images is the right direction to head. Crediting the usage back to the photographer is always a good policy as well. At least that way something is given back to those who are providing you with images that would encourage their interest in the craft (who doesn't like to see their name in print?), and doesn't divest them of ownership of their own images. That way the entrant can be part of the solution instead of a victim. It's a more palatable agreement, at least in my mind. I hope your lawyers agree.

Best,

Patrick Dixon

Hopefully ASMI will change its language on the rules (and its policies) to be more favorable to photographers in the future. At least we got them thinking about it...

Read the Rules: Photo Contests

The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute is a large association with relatively deep pockets. As an ex-commercial fisherman, I support what they do to get the fish prices up and to get people to buy fish (always an issue in Burgermerica). But as a professional photographer, I had to object to their policy on copyright for images submitted to their latest photo contest: 

"If you submit an image to the contest, ASMI reserves the right to free reproduction of entered images in all media and the right to provide all entered images to promotional partners around the world. The copyright for all entries will be retained by ASMI. ASMI reserves the right send emails promoting the contest."

So I looked up their Communications Director, a Mr. Tyson Fick, and sent him this letter:

Hello Mr. Fick:

I am a professional photographer and an ex-commercial fisherman (Cook Inlet gillnetter for over 20 years). These days I make a good portion of my living taking and selling photos of the commercial fishing and marine industry. I was excited when I first saw your Photo Contest advertised on Facebook by a friend, and immediately went to the web page and started looking it over, only to be disappointed in your policy of wanting to take all photo copyrights for every submission! I admit that most of your entrants will be amateur photographers who have no intention of selling their work. I would also agree that winning a grand prize worth $500 is a fair enough price for those some of those rights. Allowing you to publish a winner as often as you'd like - as long as I get to sell the image as well - that even seems acceptable to me (but probably would not be acceptable to all pros). But ALL rights to ALL photographs submitted? That is a scam to get as many images for your publication as possible - for free - from an unsuspecting public. I grant you that publishing your conditions in the Rules section is actually a very good thing. And as a former commercial fisherman, I support your efforts in the fish marketing business. But as a professional photographer I have to ask, "Can't you do better than this?" If you want good images to use, at least pay a fair price for them. Even to the amateurs. Or at the very least, don't ask for all rights. that's just greedy - and it's greed at the expense of the very people you serve.

Any chance you'll change your rules on this matter?

I look forward to your reply.

---------

It might seem like a trivial thing to many amateur photographers, and advertising is worth something for sure, but I subscribe to the belief that you shouldn't give your work away for free. And businesses, non-profits, and institutes shouldn't ask you to. You have invested in your photographs, even if that little image on your monitor doesn't seem like much, it is worth the price of your camera and lens and tripod you used to take it. It is worth all the hours your spent learning how to use it. It is worth all the gallons of gas it took to get to where you were when you took it. And it is worth all the time you spent downloading it, selecting it, editing it and submitting it. 

Still want to give it away? If you do, make sure it's for the right reason. Certainly not to "get more work." That technique doesn't work. Make sure you give your images to organizations you want to help, believe in, and support. The rest of them can offer you a fair price, just like everyone else. 

We'll see what Mr. Fick has to say. I'll post his reply, if I get one. Meanwhile, steer clear of contests like these. They aren't worth it.

Turning a Photo into a Poster Print

I often like to turn my fine-art photos into posters - sort of like "dressing them up" to present them in a different, more elegant way. It also makes them more marketable. Here is the workflow for creating a poster: Enjoy!


Poster Prints Workflow
Method One:
1. Open the photo in Photoshop.
2. Duplicate the background
a. Right click on the background layer in the Layers Panel and select “duplicate.”
3. Click on the background layer in the Layers panel so it is blue (selected):

4. From the drop-down Image menu, click on Canvas Size. Be sure to check the “Relative” box and expand the canvas by the number of inches appropriate to your image. The example will put two inches of white border all the way around the photo. The default setting for how the canvas is expanded is in the center. That setting expands the canvas in all directions. Click OK.

5. Your image should look like the one below. Now do it again, this time adding extra space at the bottom of the image only. Note how the arrows box is darker gray at the top center. That setting will not allow any space to be added to the top. Only enter a number in the “Height” field, and the width will remain the same:

Method Two:
1. Open the photo in Photoshop.
2. Go to File/New and open a new page that is the size of your final poster, i.e., 16x20 inches. Be sure the resolution is the same as your photo (should be 300 pixels per inch (ppi) for printing. You can check this or change it in Image/Image Size/Document size. (If you are dealing with a vertical image, make the document 20x16).
3. Using the Move Tool (the top tool in the Toolbar), hold the Shift key down and drag the photo onto the new page. Let go when you see a plus sign on the cursor. The image will automatically be centered.
4. Again, while holding the Shift key, click on the photo and slide it upward until the sides and top are almost the same, leaving more room at the bottom for visual space. Adjust this to your taste.
5. In both methods, you now have a background layer and a layer just above it that contains the visible photo.

6. Painting a Line around your photo:
Now click on the background copy (or photo) layer in the Layers Panel, so it is active.

7. Go to Edit/Stroke and select the color and width of the line you want to paint around your photo. You may choose to paint the line on the inside of the edge, the middle of it, or the outside. The outside setting will round the corner slightly:

8. Your photo should now have a line painted around it.

9. Now select the text tool (T) and type your title and other information. I prefer Trajan Pro as my font. Size is dependent on the image and title.

10. While still in the Text tool, adjust the spacing of the letters by:
a. Selecting all the word and holding down the Alt (Option on a Mac) key and hitting the right arrow key on the keyboard to expand, the left arrow key to contract.
b. Click the cursor in between two letters and use the same technique as in a., above to adjust the space between them.
Tip: When you are finished typing with the Text tool, just click on another tool (or hit Cmd-Enter on a Mac/Cntl-Return on a PC) to exit.

11. Centering:
Center the words on the canvas by clicking on the background layer in the Layers Panel, and clicking on the text layers while holding down the Cntl/Cmd key so they are all selected. Then click on the Move Tool (M) at the top of the toolbar, and use the alignment tool in the Option bar to center. The second one from the right will center elements vertically:

12. Adding Layer Styles: To activate the Layer Styles dialog box, click on the Fx icon at the bottom of the Layers Panel. If you see a menu, just select Blending Options:

13. The following Dialog box will open. If you check one of the boxes, Drop Shadow, for example, a Drop Shadow will appear around the edge of the layer you are on, but you won’t see controls for Drop Shadow until you click on the words “Drop Shadow” in the dialog box. Then you can adjust the shadow to your liking. For text, I usually only use Bevel and Emboss & Contour:

The following shows Bevel & Emboss only applied to the top line of text:

The final version (I added a drop shadow to the background copy layer):

Photo Workflow

Here's a new twist for me on my blog, some tips on processing photos. I will try and post one a week or so for a while, and see how that goes. If you know anyone that might be interested, please pass the blog URL along! Here we go!

Photoshop Techniques
Photo Workflow

After opening a photo, these are the steps I usually take when editing a photo:

1. Crop:
Using the Cropping Tool on the Toolbox, I click and drag a bounding box around the image to improve composition. There are guides that help suggest placement using the rule of thirds, and you may rotate the crop by moving your cursor outside the bounding box. The tool darkens everything it will crop away.

Before you begin the crop, you may enter the size dimension and/or resolution in the option bar of the tool at the top of the screen. Any box you draw will then have the dimensions and resolution you enter. If you do not enter a dimension, the tool will use the photo as a reference, and keep the resolution the same.

Double-click inside the box or hit the Enter/Return key to apply the crop. Hit ESC to exit and start over.

2. Exposure:
The next step is to deal with the overall exposure of the image. Is it too light, too dark? I like using the Layer Adjustments for these. My favorite tool is Levels, the one that looks like a histogram. By moving the black, gray and white triangles, I can change the overall appearance of the photo drastically. Usually I move the black triangle to the left edge of the graph in the histogram, the white triangle to the right edge, and the gray triangle is adjusted to my taste. See examples below (Levels adjustment is in black):

Here is the Before image in color:

Here is the After Image in color. Red circles indicate changes in the Levels adjustment:

Here is a BW image Before the adjustment:

Here is the BW image After adjustment:

3. Dodge and Burn Layer
Next I look at individual areas in the photo I may want to lighten or darken, and create a D & B layer to this adjustment on. I go to the Layer Menu at the top of the screen, and pick New/Layer. With the dialog box open, I then select Mode/Overlay, and check the box that says Overlay-Neutral color (50% Gray):

Once the new layer is created (it should appear gray in the Layers Panel), you can then paint on it to lighten or darken areas in the photo. Choose a paint brush that fits the size of the area you want to work on, make it 0% hardness in the options bar, and make the opacity setting in the neighborhood of 10-20%. To lighten, make your foreground color white; to darken, make it black. If it is too powerful, lower the opacity; if you don't see a change, raise it. White areas usually aren't changed much by this procedure.

That's it. I apply other adjustment layers as needed, like hue/saturation, brightness/contrast, etc., but the basic workflow is above. Don't forget to save your work as you go, every 15 minutes or so.