Susan Brandt Graham Photography
Life from a Southwest Point of View
Iris
The iris were gorgeous last week at the BioPark. For my iris-loving friends, I am sorry I do not have the names of these – they were not marked. But, I think you can still enjoy the beauty of the flowers. They were everywhere throughout the BioPark.
Copyright Registration and Protection of Artistic Work in the U.S.
Copyright laws are very complex, and they are different all over the world. This post is directly relevant only to my artist friends (photographers, painters, etc.) in the U.S. The internet has made protection of one’s work difficult the world over, although it has, at the same time, made work much more accessible, a benefit for artists.
(Disclaimer: I am a photographer very interested in protecting the rights in my work. These are some of the things I have learned and some of the things I do. For legal advice, always consult an attorney well versed in copyright law. It is complex and is in the process of changing.)
In the United States, copyright is guaranteed in the Constitution itself. It is not in an amendment; it is in the Constitution itself! This leads to a couple of interesting facts. Copyright laws are written and revised by Congress (so don’t expect changes to occur at breakneck speed these days). Perhaps more importantly, depending on your point of view, copyright cases are heard in Federal (not State!) courts (have you ever heard the expression, “don’t make a federal case out of it?” There are reasons for that expression! Federal lawsuits are very expensive and time consuming!)
I’m always a little surprised when I realize that the only people I actually know personally who have registered their copyrights in their art are the instructor (an attorney/photographer) I had for a class, “Legal Issues in the Digital Arts” and I. In the U.S., an artist owns the copyright in his/her art from the moment a work is created (unless it was a “work made for hire” or for some reason the artist transferred the copyright). In the U.S., however, an unregistered copyright is pretty meaningless in cases of infringement.
Here is the U.S. Copyright Office Circular with which every artist in the U.S. should be familiar:
Among these advantages [of registration] are the following:
• Registration establishes a public record of the copyright claim.
• Before an infringement suit may be filed in court, registration is necessary for works of U. S. origin.
• If made before or within five years of publication, registration will establish prima facie evidence in court of the validity of the copyright and of the facts stated in the certificate.• If registration is made within three months after publication of the work or prior to an infringement of the work, statutory damages and attorney’s fees will be available to the copyright owner in court actions. Otherwise, only an award of actual damages and profits is available to the copyright owner.
The short and the long of it is, if you are an artist who wishes to protect his/her works against infringement, the works need to be registered in the Copyright Office. And, for full relief in infringement cases, including statutory damages and attorney’s fees, the registration needs to be done within three months of publication (consult an attorney about how the Copyright Office interprets “publication,” if in doubt) or prior to infringement.
“It is expensive” and “it is too time-consuming” are two of the reasons I hear over and over from fellow artists who do not register their copyrights.
Continue reading “Copyright Registration in the United States”
Clematis – a beautiful vine that can have very large flowers that come in a wide variety of colors. It grows well in the high desert of New Mexico, and is one of the first things to bloom in the spring. Depending on conditions, it may bloom again in the fall, but the fall bloom rarely matches the spring bloom.
“The President” has large purple-blue flowers, with reddish-purple anthers, making for a spectacular display at its spring bloom.
These images come from my mother’s garden on May 5, 2013.
Clematis can make a very good companion plant for climbing roses. The vine can use the rose canes for support, but does not “choke” the rose. It will bloom first, usually before rose blooms appear. It will finish blooming about the time the roses start to bloom. The rose provides the “shady feet” the clematis needs to thrive, which is important since the vine itself needs sun.
This clematis, ‘The President,’ is not planted with a climbing rose, but is planted near ‘Gold Medal.’ It is a stunning combination when the two are blooming together.
Clematis – a wonderful addition for a spectacular and early spring bloom!
Spirits of the Old Adobes
I am very happy to announce that this image from my “Spirits of the Old Adobes” series was selected by Julie Saul, Juror, for Honorable Mention in the Professional Women Photographers Spring 2013 International Women’s Call for Entry.
With over 1300 entries, I am honored to have this image included among Ms. Saul’s selections. The image will be featured in a one-year online exhibition on the Professional Women Photographers’ website.
The image, and the series from which it comes, are dear to me. The series combines images from the Adobe Project with Day of the Dead images from Fall, 2012. Both are very “New Mexico,” and to see the composite recognized by Professional Women Photographers is an honor of which I am very proud.
Thank you, Julie Saul and Professional Women Photographers!
More ‘Spirits of the Old Adobes’ can be seen here.
Spring bulbs – tulips, daffodils, and others were seen in colorful abundance at the Albuquerque Biopark on Saturday. I was really glad I made it out then, because all were just beginning to look a little worn. Today (Monday) we are having high winds, and I doubt photographing the spring bloom will be as good after today as it was on the weekend.
This is just a sampling of Saturday’s spring bulb beauty.
Yesterday so much was blooming that the beauty was almost overwhelming: flowers on the ground, and flowering trees. The air was filled with sweet scents wafting by.
Images of the redbuds will be posted in a subsequent post.
Here are images of two of the flowering trees with white blossoms. I do not know the names of these trees, only that they were beautiful and had a wonderful scent. The images do not begin to convey their beauty in reality.
Stabilizing Adobe – easier said than done!
Adobe has been a long-used building material in New Mexico. As noted before, many adobe structures are weathering away, because lifestyles have changed and people no longer have the time to spend on the required maintenance.
Adobe is beautiful, and many ways have been and are being tried to create more stable adobe. This adobe wall shows two things – the adobe bricks are not placed on the ground, but instead on top of a cement foundation, and the wall is “capped” with something other than plain adobe. The goal of the former is to prevent absorption of water from the ground. The goal of the latter is help slow down the weathering of adobe from rain, wind, etc.
When we take a close look at that stabilized wall, however, we see that the adobe bricks are gradually weathering away, in spite of stabilization efforts.
As I have noted many times before, weathering adobe walls are commonplace in the New Mexico landscape. In spite of my awareness of this, I was surprised a couple of weekends ago when I turned a corner at the Biopark and saw this image:
Those are some major supports being used to keep a wall standing! Here is another view of those supports:
This close up view of what was covering the wall looks like stucco with cement and/or asphalt, the kind of covering that possibly kept the underlying material from breathing. I suspect the wall supports were added after this covering failed to stop the “melting” of the underlying wall, although at this time I do not know that for a fact.
Adobe is beautiful. It is “natural.” It blends into the landscape. It is “dirt cheap.” Those are just some of the reasons to love adobe as a construction material. But, and this is major, adobe requires constant maintenance.
Thanks to Julio Hardy and his staff at the Worldwide Photography Gala Awards for selecting me as one of their Photographers of the Week for last week. Beginning April 10, and running for a year, I will have work in the Gallery of Photographers at that site. This is a wonderful photography award for exposure of my work.
The selection was based on the images in the last two posts here: “Spirits of the Old Adobes” and “Jellyfish Series.” “Spirits of the Old Adobes” is a personal fun project that I did mainly for myself, that combined in a fun way for me work I have done over the last 8 months. It goes beyond that, however. Every time I look at an old adobe, I wonder about the people who built it, the people who lived in it, perhaps for generations, and wonder where their descendants are now. I wonder what they believed, what rituals they observed, what were the important events in their lives, and on and on. Populating the abandoned adobes with Day of the Dead figures somehow made them feel “complete” to me at one level. I am really happy that the “Spirits of the Old Adobes” was selected for inclusion.
The other series selected is “Jellyfish in the Desert,” the jellyfish I photographed at the Albuquerque Aquarium just a little over a week ago. That also was a personal project I had wanted to do for some time. I finally went out and did it. There is a great deal of personal satisfaction in having those images recognized as well.
I’ll post a link to the Photographers Gallery when the gallery goes up on April 10. I am really pleased to have my work selected at this time, and to have it included alongside photographers such as Bobbie Goodrich (also in New Mexico), Dianne Yudelson, and Marguerite Garth, among others.
Once again, my thanks go to Julio Hardy, Alex, and the staff at WPGA for recognizing my work with this photography award. The WPGA has been supportive of my work for the last three years.
The Albuquerque Biopark has a small, but very nice, aquarium. For years I have been intrigued by the jellyfish. However, I was not sure I would ever be able to photograph the ones at the Biopark, because they are in a dark room. Additionally, the moon jellyfish are in a very dark tank. The Pacific sea nettles are in a dark room but are in a brightly lit tank. So, until yesterday, I would go, look at, and enjoy the jellyfish, but I never tried to photograph them. Yesterday I had time to think and to play, and for a Sunday there were surprisingly few people there, so I was comfortable taking my time. These are some of the images I was able to create yesterday.
Moon Jellyfish
Pacific Sea Nettle
More Moon Jellyfish
The Albuquerque Biopark is really a gem in the desert. For those of you who live in the area, it is a great place to visit at any time. For visitors, it is something to put on your list of things to do when you are in New Mexico.
Horizons
The choice of placement of the horizon line in a photograph certainly affects what the image conveys to the viewer. Last fall I took a photography class in which one of the assignments was to take 5 photographs which were the same in all respects except for moving the horizon line. I took multiple series for this assignment, but finally decided on one from the West Side Open Space, taken last November. All were shot at f8, 1/125 sec, 24 mm, ISO 100, on a full frame camera. I also used a circular polarizing filter.
Of the five, this image was my favorite:
Although that particular one was my favorite just as a choice out of the five, which one would be “better” would depend entirely upon the uses to which the image was to be put, as well as individual taste. Further, this series of images was taken for a specific assignment. Had I been photographing for myself, I would have chosen a time closer to sunset when the light was on the trees and mountains in the distance.
The results of changing the horizon line can be seen in this very brief video containing the five images.
The assignment was certainly effective at showing how much difference in appearance a simple shift in horizons can make in an image.
