A kind of a hodge-podge post this morning. I am deep into the final shooting for the Lighting Essentials II book to be published by Amherst Media sometime in the moderately distant future. These days it seems like a year from completion to seeing it on the shelves. I am hoping for a closer publication date, but not sure that will happen.
On the new book:
Working through the concepts of “Subject Centric Lighting” has helped clarify things for my own work. Sometimes we do things by ‘feel’ that are actually rooted in science or technique. I rarely have to think through the lighting, even multiple light set ups, these days. That doesn’t mean I am hasty or sloppy, only that I have done it so many times, that some of it becomes rote.
Taking what I do and breaking it down into bite-sized chunks that can be taken in by someone and digested, and then acted upon, is the real challenge to the writing.
What may seem like a simple shot to me may not be so simple to someone who hasn’t done it couple of hundred times. So I break it down. Look at the subject, ‘see’ my light, and explain why I am doing what I am doing. I think the process of tearing it apart has also made me see where improvements can be made.
I will be taking the month of July and August to completely redesign the workbook for the workshops to reflect the stuff I am working on with this book, and the first book (due to be released on Amazon in August, book stores in October).
The first book was written mostly around images that had been made, the new one was written and is now being illustrated. Both methods have their merits and challenges. Next book will be done as a cohesive unit… shoot, edit, write. Hoping for less angst and overly dramatic fits of terror accompanied by night sweats. Heh.
Strip lights? I got yer strip lights right heah…
The header image is a setup shot from one of the images in the book. It shows my new 85″ tall strip lights. They are from a company called Fotodiox, and they are fantastic. These things go together in less than a minute due to some excellent engineering by the Fotodiox folks, and high quality material. BTW, they come in very nice carrying cases, are baffled internally and even include a grid. They can be used without the diffusion scrim as very tall reflectors.
I am using strip lights more than I used to. Maybe it is the control or the way I can create dramatic fall off, but I used to have only two and now I have 6. Small, medium and large. These are the large. The image shows them with the Profoto 300’s. Did I mention they also come with the Profoto mounting ring? They do.
I got mine from Amazon.
Fools and Straw Men Arguments:
T Hawke skewers Jay Meisel and calls him a hack because Jay took decisive action against someone who simply scanned one of his images, turned it into 8Bit and stuck it on a cover of a CD of music he had sampled down to 8Bit.
There is much push back in the comments section of his two posts – here, and here – but he defends his claim of ‘extortion (opinion)’ because J Meisel is rich and a hack and the other guy is some poor schlub who inadvertently found himself being screwed because… well, because the rich guy was such a bastard. The guy in question is very familiar with copyright and licensing issues, so that poor pitiful me thing just doesn’t wash.
Hawke then puts up the second post where he creates a totally straw man argument, without even a shred of relevance to the first incidence, and calls it done. Carving a Shrek character on the side of the road versus taking an image and simply sampling it to 8Bit? You gotta be kidding me? Critical thinking FAIL.
OK. Whatever. (Keep stamping your feet, maybe hold your breath for a while longer… you’ll eventually get your way. Maybe. Well, no actually, there is the law, and ethical challenges galore.)
I will always come down on the side of the original creator. If T Hawke and the rest of the ‘CC’ community want the right to give their work away – something I think they have the right to do – then it should also follow that those who wish to NOT participate in giving their work away be allowed to maintain their rights.
Goose/Gander sort of thing.
No long tirade from me on this, it has been talked to death. There are those who will do anything to defend their position of hand in cookie jar as being totally irrelevant to the missing cookies. I’ve had kids, I know how they operate.
Three last things:
1. I am in Portland next weekend (1 spot left), and Vancouver the following weekend (2 spots left). Also, don’t miss the three day workshop with Kirk Tuck and I in San Diego in August. It will be a blast, and the ability to have an intimate workshop (only 10 students) with two instructors is not something that is available all that often. See Learn to Light for more info.
2. The Lighting Essentials Second Bigass Photography Contest. Did you know about it? Sign up and get shooting. Lots of great prizes (seriously, check them out).
3. Project 52 is at the halfway point. We are at week 26, and just did a preliminary portfolio project you all may be interested in. You can see the work the students are turning out here. And you can join anytime you want here. Come on and join us for weekly projects and reviews.
Thanks as always. Follow me on Twitter, Visit the Facebook Page or find out more About Me.
I’m all about protecting the creator’s rights, but you seem to miss a fundamental point: the 8-bit version was NOT “scaled down” but drawn by hand using the original photo as a template. Here’s the difference:
http://mrgan.tumblr.com/post/6840184364/hand-pixelated
That said, I still think that mr. Meisel has been a total jerk as he didn’t even try a “cease and desist” but went right thru with the lawyers. Easy when you have lots of money, but not necessarily the best thing to do.
I disagree. There is no doubt that the ‘new’ image is a ‘copy’ of the old image.
And again with the class warfare thing… sigh.
Don, don’t get me wrong, it’s not a class thing… rich people deserve the same rights as everyone, but really, would a “cease & desist” have hurt? And re. the “copy”, yes, it’s a copy but Jesus, it’s a DRAWING!
I’m not saying that Jay should give away its rights, but that’s not the proper way to do it, IMHO. Come on, it’s a guy doing a tribute to “a kind of blue”, not an Evil Corporation trying to do a lot of money by selling Meisel’s photos as their own!
I do not know definitively if a ‘cease and desist’ letter was sent.
I do not know how the infringer acted in the months leading up to the OOC agreement.\
I do not know what was said between the infinger and Maisel/Attorneys.
I only have one side of the story. That side is not convincing to me.
I also know that there are various amounts of ‘responsibility’ placed on infringers because of their ‘special knowledge’ of the laws – or at least their responsibility to understand. Civil litigation has far different stipulations than criminal.
If my next door neighbor- a dog groomer – infringed an image of mine for her MySpace account, the ‘right of responsibility’ to understand the legal ramifications of the infringement are far less than if the next door neighbor worked at an ad agency. There is a lot of discretion in those sort of things.
In this case, the infringer KNEW that what was being done was crossing the line, or at least up to the line. He CHOSE to roll the dice and do it anyway – in full knowledge of copyright and IP rights. After all, he knew he had to license the music.
So, we can disagree on methods. I can find far more agregious examples of the taking of private property and IP than this one.
And the question is then raised:
What if it was Sarah Palin who had taken the image to be used on her re-election campaign?
Would we hear the same chorus breaking out about how Sarah was ‘extorted’ because she only wanted to use the image for the ‘public good’ (no matter how you feel about what is good)?
What if it was a Pharmaceutical Company? Or a company that makes clubs for the baby seal hunters?
I really rather doubt that T Hawke and the crew would be screaming at JM for going after those folks.
Why is it different because it is Andy?
The LAW is not a celebrity game, and it should not be capriciously advanced to only the select ‘heroes’ of the majority or minority.
Otherwise chaos ensues.
I have a feeling there is way way way more to the story than Andy has disclosed. Don’t you?
I see your point… AFAIK, it seems that there was no C&D letter, that’s why I was making my point.
Sure, T.Hawk is a… liberal soul when it comes to obey the law (his policy of “I will shot in museums despite the local policies” comes to mind) so he well ALWAYS fight on the infringer’s side, I’m afraid…
I don’t know, there’s no clear winner here. The only thing I’m pretty sure of is that Baio will think twice before rolling the dice again.
“I don’t know, there’s no clear winner here.”
I disagree. The winner(s) are the folks who think it is perfectly fine for TH and anyone else to give their work away, but also feel that it is perfectly fine for those who don’t to be able to protect their work. I don’t want to stop the CC folks and if they want to give their work away forever, I couldn’t care less.
I do, however, have pretty strong feelings about being forced to join their side. I don’t want to participate in the giving away of my work, and will fight to keep it mine. If that makes me a bad guy, or a fool, I couldn’t care less. Why are my desires to not be involved any less important than theirs to be involved? Why am I (and JM and others) FORCED to accept THEIR way of doing things? If Jay had been asked, he may have said yes. We will NEVER know now, as it was decided by Baio that asking wasn’t as important as he had already determined that he was going to use it anyway (I believe he states as much in his first article).
“The only thing I’m pretty sure of is that Baio will think twice before rolling the dice again.”
On that, sir, we agree.
And I think that was the point.
Since I got Strip Lights I’ve been using them every chance I get (inside).
Love me some strip lights and beauty dishes.
Waiting for an update though from the 1980s to your current career, its been a great read.
Don. You were totally right.
http://www.jeremynicholl.com/blog/2011/07/04/how-stockbroker-andrew-peterson-aka-thomas-hawk-smeared-photographer-jay-maisel-in-andy-baio-copyright-row/
I guess I got caught in the “rich shark vs poor artist” trap. Kudos to you and Jay.
About the strip lights:
I was searching old Flickr discussions and I came across a comment you made about a strip boxes for speed lights 9 months ago.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/strobist/discuss/72157625193739153/
I assume the Fotodiox versions are what you were referring to? Would they work with the speed light mounting rings/brackets sold by Cheetah, Lastolite, Interfit, or even the ebay models?
Checked out Amazon, but the few reviews weren’t so pleased with the quality. Wondering what your thoughts might be on using these strip boxes with speed lights and also how they’re holding up, particularly the grid fabric.
“I assume the Fotodiox versions are what you were referring to?”
No. They were from another manufacturer that decided not to go forward with that design.
“Would they work with the speed light mounting rings/brackets sold by Cheetah, Lastolite, Interfit, or even the ebay models?”
No. They are not made for speedlights. They have internal reflectors that would not be of any use with speedlights. You could put a stofen on the light, but cutting the power with the stofen and both diffusion panels kills too much power for me.
“Checked out Amazon, but the few reviews weren’t so pleased with the quality.”
When you try to shoot a speedlight into something that was not even designed for a speedlight, it is somewhat disingenuous to then be upset it didn’t work. I use these on profotos and they are wonderful – both in build and light output.
Strip lights taller than about 2 feet would be very challenging for a speedlight. Too close for full coverage.
Best to get a Lastolite and put a slit panel in front of it in my opinion.