The Buzz

So as part of my ongoing North Americana Project, I was out shooting in Quebec City on a gorgeous late summer afternoon the other day.  I found this bumble bee doing its thing and suddenly found myself wishing I had a true macro lens with me.  I only had my Sigma 18-50 f/2.8 along and alas it would have to do.  After a little cropping a pretty nice shot ensued!

Livestrong

I am happy to announce the latest profit donation to the Livestrong Foundation.  Chad & JoEllen chose Livestrong as their non-profit choice from their wedding.  Go check out the site and help us all fight cancer!

Photographers: be careful with contests!

I wanted to pass along some valuable information for my fellow photographers and future photogs as well.  Be very careful when entering photography contests with respect to your copyright.  I was about to enter Outside Magazine's South African photography contest when I noticed a little blurb in the fine print... [bold added for emphasis]

GENERAL CONDITIONS: Submission of an entry grants Sponsor and its designees the right in perpetuity to publish, use, adapt, edit and/or modify the Entry in any way, in commerce and in any and all media worldwide now known or hereinafter developed, without limitation and without further consent, consideration or notice to the winner. Submission of any entry further constitutes the winner’s irrevocable assignment and transfer to the Sponsor any and all rights, title, and interest in and to the Entry, including, without limitation, all intellectual property rights.

Seeing how I am not an attorney or adept in IP law, this still raises a big red flag to me.  I follow Carolyn E. Wright's Photo Attorney blog and upon reading a lot of her posts I have decided to heed her advice and be choosy in the contests I enter.  I suggest you do the same!  While it would be great to enter as many contests as possible, giving up your copyright and IP rights is a deal breaker for me.  Especially for some of my best work which I do not want to even come close to giving up any part of my ownership to some corporation.

So be careful and read the fine print!  Cheers!

Share your best!

Have you captured some great photos lately? Want to share them? Send them my way and I will put together a blog post of some of your best work! I love learning from others and growing my own photography at the same time. Email your favorite pic to nick.lasure [at] gmail.com !!

The Bean - Chicago, Illinois