It was the last farmers market of the season in Uptown Westerville and although I’d visited the market every Wednesday afternoon I wasn’t pleased with most of the portraits, or attempted portraits, I’d taken during the three hours it was open for business.

This day I tossed my Lastolite EzyBox in the trunk of the car hoping to find a worthy subject.

As is the tradition at the final market, kids in costumes were awarded Trick-or-Treat candies from vendors, some of whom decorated their booths in Halloween dressings or themselves in costumes indicative of their product.

Such was the cheese maker who dressed in a cow costume to offer candies and cookies to her younger customers.

The crowds are usually much smaller at the end of the season, attendance dropping quickly after the last of the fresh corn and then to a trickle when the final freshly picked apples are gone.

That made it a little easier to pull the bovine out of her booth for a quick photo session.

Shot with the 14-24mm lens to include the market, minus half the vendors who stop coming at the end of the season.

Lit with an Nikon SB-800 shot through the Lastolite EzyBox with camera and strobe set to Nikon Creative Lighting System settings.

Underexposed the background by 2/3rd of a stop. Strobe set to normal output.

The EzyBox is mounted on an extension handle so it is about 40 inches over my head and slightly to the left so the light comes from slightly above .

The higher angle makes the light at her feet and slightly behind her less than it would have been at a lower angle. Less light makes the shadows disappear into the background. The softbox light slightly wrapped around her so the shadows are less pronounced than a straight strobe or a what an umbrella would have provided.

Great thing about the EzyBox is how simple it is to setup and teardown. It fits into a small pouch, even with the extension handle.

I have used it at the end of the small monopod used as a strobe extension but it wasn’t in the car as I thought.

The one thing that made this shoot more enjoyable was the enthusiasm of our subject. I’d shot her a little earlier with my iPhone for a different portrait so she was eager to see what was next in my shooting portfolio.

I’ve waited for this photo for several weeks. The scene has happened a number of times but usually too cluttered in the background or lacking the touch of a hand on the shoulder. As luck would have it, this was the last father-son duo to leave the fields. They stayed for throwing practice past the end of four coach pitch games on four fields.

Although this was my original idea, father and son leaving after a game, it wasn’t what might have happened.

About half the parent-child groups were mothers and sons. From a sociological view, it appears to reflect the number of changes in the dynamics of modern families.

Next on the list is to get that photo, mother and son leaving at the end of a game.

From a technical standpoint this was a difficult photo. The EXIF data shows high ISO with a relatively slow shutter speed dictated by heavy cloud cover a few minutes before sunset.

The best angle on their path was as they just stepped out of the shadows of several small trees that lined the path near the fields. This photo is as they just stepped into the open area near the outfield where I had enough light to shoot at 1/200th. I underexposed by 1/3rd stop move the shutter speed higher. Wasn’t too worried about the shadows going too dark in this situation. They already were dark and I needed a higher shutter speed.

Preferred to have shot it with the D300 and the 70-200 2.8 instead of the D5000 and a kit lens but I was traveling on my bike with the lightweight camera kit so I could quickly and easily switch fields and locations.

Still needs a little work to make it a better photo. There are two paths leading from the fields. This path has the restrooms building in the background that is difficult to keep out of the frame. The other path is clear at the end which would clean up the background.

I’m going back for that photo, with mother and son.

Sometimes  a photo with a wide dynamic range, such as this photo of a thin layer of fog lit by  the sun rising over a treeline, requires multiple layers of Photoshop editing to create the final image.

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I wanted to offer congratulations to the youngster wearing New York Yankees t-shirt and baseball cap, the man wearing a light blue shirt and baseball cap, the man in uniform and the young woman standing in front of him. Congratulations too for the other true baseball fans in John Iacono’s photo of Yankees’ Derek Jeter making his 3,000 hit.

Boos and hisses the illiterate few who chose that moment to use their phones and point-shoot cameras to record what is a remarkable feat for a ball player.

Imagine for a moment you’re sitting in a front-row box seat at Yankee Stadium to watch the first ever Yankee go into the record books making 3,000 career hits. What it must have taken to get those seats. Even sitting in the first ten rows at that moment would have pleased even a Mets fan.

Now imagine, as a curveball approaches the bat you choose to turn away, to take your eyes from the plate, away from the stride and stroke, away from the power and performance, away from the record and reaction.

You narrow your eyes to an approximately 3×4-inch low resolution recorded version as Jeter, his feet planted into home plate dirt and his eyes focused on a 78-mile-per-hour orb, begins his stroke with a quick step, a turn of the hips and dip of the shoulder, to slam his bat against an opposing force, reversing its direction by adding the power of his body, the years of at bats and an accumulated strength of knowledge of the physics of baseball.

Your view of the field obscured by a LCD screen that may never resolve enough information to even mimic human eyesight. Blocked by a piece of electronics technology with limited ability to capture the essence of that historic moment.

Even Iacono’s photo is not bat on ball, the iconic moment for baseball photographers. And, the bat blurred, even at what must have been a very fast shutter speed. It’s not John’s fault. Bat on ball is an extremely difficult photo to shoot and who’s to say this photo was an editorial choice and he does have bat on ball only to lose it to an editor’s decision?

You use your camera phone or a point and shoot for a visual record of Jeter’s entrance into baseball record books. A camera with extreme shutter delay, slow shutter speed, limited zoom capability, and poor dynamic range.

Of what use are these photos? So the photographer can brag about being at Yankee Stadium for Jeter’s record breaking stroke? So the photo, if it is ever printed, stuck in a dresser drawer, file cabinet, or attic photo collection?

What disappointment there would be as the photographer bragged about being there to a friend and showed the photo on their phone or camera as proof?

“Nice photo. But, did you see him hit the ball or were you watching the back of your camera?” would be the question I’d ask.

“Did you actually see the hit or were you looking somewhere else? Is your photo the best memory of the moment?

There are times when it is not necessary to raise your camera in front of your face for a personal visual record. Especially when so many professional photographers are shooting the same moment with a greater ability to properly record history.

I would be embarrassed seen staring at the back of a camera while history is made. Just like these people missing Jeter’s 3,000th hit.

[ See larger photo ]

Google+ medium-sized photo created during upload

I’m finally using Google+ after being granted registration during one of the brief opening opportunities.

After completing my profile I created a test Photo Album with four photos. The uploading process was ordinary. It opens a drag and drop box with an option to open a dialogue box. The upload is fairly quick, perhaps a little slower than the Facebook upload but not significantly so.

After the upload is completed it’s possible to edit the original caption and perform minor photo editing, add, edit and delete comments, and add name tags on people in the photo in a popup lightbox editing and viewing screen.

A Histogram and basic camera information shows in the Photo Details option.

Not all this information is available in your public photo albums. They only see the caption and photo details and do not have the capability to add comments. Only people in your Circles can add a comment.

Google+ 150x150 pixel thumbnail

Google creates several copies of your uploaded photos.

First is a 150×150-pixel thumbnail for display on your About page.

Google+ 169x169 pixel Scrapbook photo

A second square thumbnail at 169×169 pixels is built for display on the album cover.

Next is a medium-sized image displayed in the photo album group page. This size varies depending upon the size of the original. My original photo at 960×638 pixels was reduced to 800×532 pixels.

Smaller photos are reduced to smaller sizes proportional to the original size. I have not uploaded a larger image but would think the reduction would be proportionally larger.

Google also stores the original, or a complete copy, for full-sized viewing in the lightbox popup.

There are several differences, other than the sizes, for this new photo collection.

None of the smaller photos created by Google contain the original EXIF or IPTC information. It is stripped out and discarded during the small image creation. The largest image, which I believe to be the original upload, does contain original EXIF/IPTC information.

What this means for photographers is simple.

Make sure you watermark photos before uploading. A visual watermark not only does the obvious, it adds a layer of legal consequences for an infringer. Removing copyright details indicates an intention to violate copyright law. Intent may carry a heavier penalty for the infringer. (I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advise.)

Make sure your photos have accurate and up-to-date IPTC information. Google can’t preserve what it doesn’t have. My original caption, added during the ingest operation, is a brief copyright statement.

“Photo Copyright Gary Gardiner. Not be used without written permission detailing exact usage. Photos from Gary Gardiner, may not be redistributed, resold, or displayed by any publication or person without written permission. Photo is copyright Gary Gardiner who owns all usage rights to the image.“

It is far from a complete notice but does define in simple terms that I own the photo and may limit its use. The statement remains in the caption field for any photos I upload from my computer. There needs to be a simple way to add a watermark and IPTC info for Social Media uploads from my iPhone.

App Developers! Build me an app that precedes photo uploads to selected sites by adding a watermark and copyright information in the IPTC space.

Google now does a better job of retaining original metadata than Flickr and Facebook. Still, the smaller photos which are more likely to be used on blogs and posts do not have IPTC info included.

Meanwhile, watermark your photos and include copyright information in the IPTC metadata.

Links to the photos mentioned and their respective EXIF/IPTC data.

• Google+ medium-size photo
• Google+ medium size photoEXIF/IPTC
• Google+ larger photo
• Google+ larger photo EXIF/IPTC
• My original photo

via @GaryGardiner: Google+ and Copyright Information for Photographers
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I recently updated the Copyright and Usage Permissions for photos displayed at GaryGardiner.com and WestervilleLife.com.

Each page now displays the following set of rules and requirements for using my photos.

I’ve decided it is near impossible to prevent personal use on Facebook and personal Web sites. What I can try to prevent is commercial use without proper compensation.

My photos are licensed for use by individuals and businesses.

The rules are easy to understand.

Personal Use – If you like the photo I shot of you, you are welcome to use it on your personal Facebook page or personal Web site. Keep my copyright notice and include a link to my Web site. Use the photo as an avatar or a profile photo at Linkedin or Twitter. Let me know that you are using the photo so I can keep accurate records of its locations.  If you any advertisements on your page use the business license information below.

Business Use – If you’re a business with a Facebook Page, you must obtain a license. I you want to use them on your Web site, you must obtain a license. Using my photos without a license is not Fair Use. It is commercial usage. If the intent is to use my photos to help draw traffic to a Web site which has  advertising or to proclaim a product or process that may enhance a personal or business bank account, the photo needs properly licensing. Commercial use also requires a model release for publicity and privacy rights for any persons appearing in the photo.

If you’re not in the photo you want to use you still need to get permission from the photographer to use it in any way this includes a personal  Web site. There is a fee for usage.

Prints – Printing requires a license. You may not make prints of any of the photos, either for personal or business use. Printing requires a very specific license, even for personal use.

These photos fall under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license. Creative Commons licensing does not mean you have freedom to do as you want with these photos.

Copyright and Usage Permissions

“The photos on this Web site are available for limited personal, non-commercial use by anyone who appears in them. Use  limited to Web only. Use in printed materials is prohibited. Commercial use or use by any others without proper licensing is prohibited and protected by US Copyright law. That means you must obtain a license for their use and pay a commensurate fee. Photos are property of Gary Gardiner who must be credited for any usage and a link to his Web site included in the use. Removal of the copyright notice on the photo or removal of metadata is a violation of federal law and punishable with fees and fines”

Related articles

• Understanding Copyright And Licenses (smashingmagazine.com)
• IPTC, EXIF and your photos (newdigitalphoto.gs)
• Copyright Information: FAQ (library.pitt.edu)
• The 10 Rules Of US Copyright Infringement (jeremynicholl.com)
• Website Legal Issues: Copyright Infringement and Protection (iplawforstartups.com)
• What Everyone Should Know about Copyright Laws: Internet Tips & Guides (brighthub.com)

This photo (above) was shot with the Nikon D5000 in aperture priority following an afternoon rain storm. The same lilypad (below) was shot with my iPhone.

Read about the shoot and the comparison at Gary Gardiner’s site.

Storm front arrival shot with Nikon D3100, 1/80 sec, f/10, ISO 400. Processed as single frame HDR in Oloneo.

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Same storm front shot with iPhone 3Gs. Processed with Camera+ app Clarity setting.

A late afternoon storm front pushes clear skies away as it arrives with strong winds, rain, lighting and thunder on a late spring afternoon. I began the afternoon shooting the barn at left in cloudy skies with fluffy clouds and a scattering of streaks of warm light creating shadows and contrast both for my iPhone and Nikon digital SLRs.

It ended with police and a 150-yard sprint to my car before the rain drenched me and the gear.

Read more about these photos, especially the iPhone images, and my encounter with police at iPhoneography.us.

After several evenings of wanting to shoot this small carnival at Westerville and Morse Roads I found enough time to make the trip worthy. As luck would have it, as I arrived lightning startled the few customers as it traveled across the northern skyline. The arrival of strong wind gusts promised to carry the storm across the carnival’s location.

Within five minutes of my arrival the carnival abruptly closed, the bright lights extinguished, squeals of joy quieted and the unsold $4.00 corn dogs warming under heat lamps removed for another night’s hungry customer.

Before the evening ended so abruptly I was able to get off a few frames of these well-lit food vendors. My original composition included a third truck at the left of the frame creating a stair-step arrangement of compositional objects with the open spaces between them creating the classic S-curve composition.

However, the short focal length of the iPhone camera pushed the third truck too far away and emphasized the foreground truck whose lighting was much darker. I stepped forward enough to eliminate the foreground truck and with a tighter crop and better light. The S-curve composition remains with movement through the open spaces into the background. Shot three frames.

One of the three trucks. A second of these two trucks with just the edge of the foreground truck. Then this frame. That’s when the carnival began to shut down.

Ran it through Dramatic Light app using the normal setting slightly adjusted to the right for a greater effect.

I also added more Memorial Day Weekend flag photos at WestervilleLife, two of which are iPhone photos.

Flag motif display at Amish Original Furniture

Woman poses with her flag t-shirt

Here is the instagram version.

S-curve composition places objects and lines in a specific arrangement to create movement through the photo. See this photo larger and a discussion about how eliminating some foreground objects may help S-curve composition at iPhoneography.us.