NBMS Career Day 2009

I only got choked up 6 times....maybe 7.

Not sure why, but perhaps my desires deep within are bring ignited. Maybe I have figured out how to set myself on fire....or I am just an emotional sap.

Career day 2009 was today at the middle school. I got 6th grade again this year (by request). Next year, will be 8th grade.

I wish I could show you the images that the students took, but being a professional photographer, I have to have their permission. Hopefully, their parents will read this and give me the opportunity to share the work of their kids. :)

Our sessions are 20 minutes each for 6 classes. I talk WAAAYYY too much for only 20 minutes. I was cut short 5 times I think. Once I was only 1/2 way through because of a lot of questions. Which is fine, but I wasn't able to get out all what I wanted to say for the job of being a photographer. I think I will start on next years presentation this week. I need to cull it down a bit and really focus on the business part of the business. Sure, making WOW! images is the goal, but how do you do it? What does it take to know you have made a great image? How do you market, sell and collect the money. I didn't get to cover those items in my bullet points.

I did however cover copyright and infringement. I asked if anyone created anything and what they would fee like if someone used it to make money and they not get paid? I think more than a few students got it.

All in all, I think MY performance was lacking, but hopefully the students were able to get through my gibberish to realize I am a lucky person following my dream and being able to share it with them.

Thank you NBMS staff! Thank you!

Ohhh, the humanity

Earlier this month when I did a presentation at the middle school for career day and one of the items that I really wanted to discuss was about copyright. Talking about copyright in the sense of photography is really pretty boring. Until you you sprinkle it with dollars and sense. I used songs as my inroad to the conversation.

To begin, everyone that creates something is automatically protected by copyright laws at the time of creation. To use something they could relate to, I asked everyone if they had an iPod or MP3 player. Then I asked them how many songs they have. I heard from a few to hundreds of songs. Then I posed the question to see if they paid for every one of those songs.......if not, they they took someone else's creation and it was a copyright violation. No different than if someone took your pictures, poem or short story, without paying for it.

For some, they got it. Most really didn't care.

With that in mind. Here is a story from the Washington Post about photo usage by corporations and copyright.

Keep in mind, that the photography industry needs to bear there are two camps of use. Commercial and editorial.

The presentation was pretty fun and I can't wait until next year.