stolencamerafinder uses the serial number stored in your photo to search the web for photos taken with the same camera

http://tinyurl.com/3zeuyy7

You have the DMCA so you don’t need SOPA (or PIPA).

Like many have suggested SOPA is like banning cars because bank robbers use them to get away. Overkill basically. And, in the wrong hands, ripe for abuse.

Also, there are some serious problems with the way SOPA is written, as Clay Shirky explains in the video below: It reverses the burdon of proof and doesn’t actually stop you from reaching a website. I think it will cause more problems than it solves.

Buuuuuuuuuut, let’s not kid ourselves here. As much as Hollywood and media conglomerates want to protect their businesses, Google and Facebook want to steal it. Nobody is fighting for your rights. They’re simply deciding who will be in control of the copyrighted material you produce.

This is a very difficult position for photographers to be in. You would like to take down rogue sites plastered with your copyrighted content when they don’t respond to DMCA notices and at the same time media conglomerates are finding ways to undermine your ability to make a living producing copyrighted content. Ultimately, I think it is best to not side with the Media Conglomerates. Their business model is dying. Breaking the internet will not fix it.

Video at the site.

http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2012/01/19/sopa-and-photography/

As a sports photographer, John Middlebrook’s first “real” assignment was shooting an Orioles game back in August of 2007. In his 5th year as a freelance sports photographer, he has been fortunate to shoot sporting events such as the FIS downhill skiing in Switzerland, UEFA soccer featuring teams like AC Milan and Real Madrid, the US Open Golf Championship, NFL teams including Ravens, Redskins, Jets, Titans and Steelers, 2009 Ice Hockey World Championships, Swiss Indoor Tennis, and so many more. His work has been published in Time.com, Sports Illustrated, SI.com, SI Latino and SI Kids, TV Guide,ESPN.com, Golf Magazine, and several books.

Kathy Rus’ practice is focused on Business Law, Wills, Trusts & Estates, and Tax-Exempt Organizations.  In addition to her law practice, Kathy is currently an adjunct professor at Carroll County Community College, where she teaches evening courses in Legal Issues in Business, Legal Issues for Artists, and Succession Planning for The Family Farm Business.   She is the President of the Hereford Zone Business Association, and is on the Board of Directors of Change, Inc., a non-profit organization serving persons with disabilities.

Another voice on HDR

Introduction

Alexandre Buisse in A Plea for HDR said it all. He speaks for me. One of my favourite photographic subjects is church interiors (no castles in this part of the world), and HDR is indispensable. But I don’t want my pictures to look like HDR. And I also want HDR to be just another part of my toolbox. Does anyone remember as far back as 2003? That was when we corrected exposure using multiple layers and blending modes in Photoshop, and when we created “fill flash” using clever masks. Now with Lightroom there are simple sliders for them all and more. I think of HDR as an extreme version of Lightroom’s Fill Light and Recovery combined, just a method to get back what I saw and I know was there. Until the “HDR slider” arrives I would like to have something similar and simple.
The tutorial is divided into two parts.

In the first part I will look at the problem of consistent colours in Photomatix Pro, and how it can be solved. The solution applies to any HDR program that creates unnatural but consistent colours. In the second part I will present a workflow “for the rest of us”, where I use what I found in the first part to effortlessly create a consistent suite of HDR images from one shoot – the HDR slider.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/hdr_workflow_for_the_rest_of_us.shtml

And while we’re waiting for new content to arrive from our members.  We can talk about some new 2012  initiatives.

The “Photo-of-the-Week challenge has again been brought out of the closet.

“Last year we had a weekly photo assignment that I copied from the Digital Photography School.  The idea is to make you pickup your camera each week and put some thought into what you’re shooting.
I’m going to try the same thing again this year only this time the themes will come from from us, the members of CMPG.
The theme for the first week will be “Self Portrait” and the pictures need to be taken between now and uploaded by January 7th.  Photographs for each assignment are to be taken during the week the assignment is given.
I highly suggest you u/l the images to your personal gallery and post a copy of your image to the current challenge gallery (example) ” Week One Self Portrait ”