photo by Hanmi Hubbard Meyer

I found out via Facebook that I have a photo published in this week’s Portland Mercury…. (Ahh… takes me back to my days of being published in the local weekly music rags.)  Sadly there is no photo credit.   The photo, of Sunset Valley frontman Herman Jolly, was taken ages ago with a Canon S40 point and shoot. I was at the height of my “let’s push the bounds of what this little camera can do” experimentation. That was also about this time I decided I really needed to step up to a DSLR. While I was becoming frustrated with shutter lag and the very limited control, I think the time I spent really digging into and exhausting all the features available BEFORE upgrading, really made me appreciate the DSLR when I finally switched.

This discovery brings up many topics in my mind.  Chief among them: ensuring proper credit and protecting images that are shared online.  Upon searching for images of Sunset Valley, I found several blogs using a version of the photo above or one of several other shows I shot and naively uploaded to my old Mac.com page.  The reality is I was not a pro shooter at the time, and didn’t really expect to become one again.  Of course, now that I am, I regret that I have missed out on several opportunities for some free advertising.  And moreover, having now had my eyes opened, what will I change going forward?  I already watermark everything and take full advantage of exif data…  I know there are a lot of opinions out there, and countless products designed to protect copyright holders.  But how helpful are they, really?

On a side note, I am VERY excited to see Sunset Valley tonight.  As the article mentions they had a prior “last” show, which happened to be my wedding day, so I missed it.  Now I just need to decide what to toss into the camera bag…