a guide to understanding copyright {complete with baby animals}

This post is a doozy. So I've gone ahead and inserted GIFs of baby animals to take the edge off.

This sloth is in this for the GIFs.

There is a lot of defensiveness and confusion around this subject. I know a thing or two about copyright after spending a few years chasing copyright infringement and sending cease and desists. It's easy to confuse what rights you do and do not have when it comes to working with a photographer, and it's even easier to do something you can get sued for, so it's important to get a handle on understanding it.

So let’s get into it, shall we?

What does copyright mean?

Copyright means the legal right to reproduce, share, sell, print, display, alter or publish a work (which could be anything from a movie to a photograph, a piece of writing, music or any other form of art). The copyright holder is in control of where the work is used. This person can also authorize others to do the same.

Who owns the copyright?

In most circumstances copyright belongs to the creator. There are exceptions to every rule, but for the purposes of this post and to avoid confusion, it's safe to assume that the copyright holder is the person who made the work (ie the photographer)

This polar bear mom has copyright over her baby polar bear because she made him.

why don't I get the copyright if it's a photo of me?

Model releases are signed often with any photo session. This releases the photographer from needing your permission every time they use a photo featuring you. 

i don't want pictures from my session being posted willy nilly without my consent. can I have the copyright?

Probably not without a hefty fee attached to it. Releasing copyright means releasing all rights to the image. That includes any money we can make off of prints, any revenue from future advertising or promotional work, any control over how our image is altered (after the hours of time we spend editing), etc. The list of reasons photographers don't like to release copyright goes on.

Talk to your photographer if you have concerns on how they will use the images from your session. Ultimately, we want you to be comfortable, and most of the time we are willing to work with you when it comes to how the image is shared.

Weeeeeeeeeeee.

sorry, I am not comfortable with signing a model release. What do I do? 

It’s safe to say you should never sign a contract you aren’t 100% comfortable with. If you can’t come to an agreement with the photographer, you should probably find someone else to work with. 

Or, set up a tripod or selfie stick and take your own photo and do whatever the heck you want with it. Problem solved. 

I only have low res, watermarked images. Can I print those?

Sure. Most of the time these are images meant for sharing online. Low-resolution means low-quality, so be prepared for pixelated prints. If you want to guarantee a beautiful, unwatermarked print, go through your photographer.

Look! It's Jon Hamm and a cute cub.

I want to share these online, can I remove the watermark?

No. Watermarks are used for this reason: to guarantee photo credit and prevent pirating of photos from third parties (like, if Buzzfeed were to pick up on it and make it viral). Only post what is given to you by the photographer, and for the love of God don't put a filter on it.

but my friend is really good at photoshop. Can I ask someone else to edit it for me?

Please don’t do this. If you aren’t happy with an edit, talk to the photographer. You paid them to edit the photo, and all that extra $$ is worthless the second you or someone else (even an app) slaps another edit on top of it. 

An instagram filter is like someone drawing a mustache on a perfectly good photo.

ok, sometimes mustaches make things better. touche, cat.

What if i find a photo on Google? Can I use that photo?

Probably not. In general, if you are not the copyright holder it's safe to assume you do not have permission to publish, print, or share the image/work.  But you can do an image search to specifically find fair use.

To access this hack, go to the "Advanced Search Settings" in Google's image search and select the specific usage you need. Voila.

Also, you can check out Creative Commons for totally legal-to-use material.

wait... how come you can use GIFs in this blog post? 

Fair use.

Stay with me here.

what? explain this to me like I'm five.

Copyright means you are in control of how the work is used/shared.

A license is written permission to use an image/work for something specific. For example: a music license is given for use of one song in a single video, a commercial license is given for use of a work in advertisement. Usually you need separate licenses for different uses.

Personal use usually only covers posting on your personal social media. This is not the same as a print release.

A print release means you are given a print file you are able to print from. This file may not be larger than a certain size. A print release does not give you permission to give that file to anyone else without permission from the copyright holder.

A model release is signed if you are in the image. It means you accept the terms of usage and accept that you are not the copyright holder of the image. You release the right to control what happens to that image/work.

Fair use is when the original material is used for a limited and "transformative" purpose, such as commentary, criticism or parody.

This GIF is fair use, muthafuckaaaa

OK, I think I understand copyright now, but can you list the copywrongs?

- editing an image without permission from the photographer (e.g. Instagram filters, removing watermark, any sort of app filter or manipulation)

- Removing a watermark 

- Printing images without a print release 

- Using or giving away photos or files for any purpose without permission from the copyright holder

- submitting photos for publication without permission from the photographer

-doing pretty much anything without the written consent of the photographer/creator

Sum this all up for me in one sentence.

When in doubt, reference your contract terms or ask the person who made the image/work.

You made it! I hope this was helpful.

If you have other questions, let me know in the comments!

the camera doesn't matter

Buckle up, buckaroos: I'm about to drop some deep knowledge on you because I'm feeling existential AF.

So you know how sometimes Facebook ads are so well targeted that you think they are speaking directly to you? Like those addictive looking blackhead masks that peel off your face. You know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, I was scrolling my feed and I saw an ad for this class with Annie Leibovitz. I obviously stopped and turned up the volume, because when Annie Leibovitz speaks you show her some goddamned respect.

Annie Leibovitz is basically Yoda to me.

Not only did I want to immediately buy this class (which I didn't), she made a comment that I really related with. She said she's not a technical photographer, meaning she doesn't like to talk on and on about the gear she uses.

"If that's what you're thinking about," she explains, "you're not taking pictures."

I am in several photography and small business groups on Facebook full of creatives and I see little debates pop up all the time. Canon or Nikon. Black and white or color. Beyoncé's maternity photos or Beyoncé's newborn photos.

One popular topic photographers especially like to hate on: the iPhone as a camera. There is a growing opinion that iPhone = shitty pictures. In this day in age, more and more people have access to a camera and are able to document their lives. Yet instead of celebrating this or feeling motivated to become a better photographer, I still see comments like, "Anyone can take a photo with an iPhone," or, "There's no skill to it." This disdain comes off as insecurity at best, egotism at it's worst.

The new iPhone X came out recently and I would be lying if I said I wasn't impressed by the picture quality. But I'm not intimidated by its awesomeness.

I once was shooting for a shoe designer in LA, and while I was setting up and styling  the shot, her assistant leaned in, snapped a photo of my setup with her phone, and put it on Instagram. She then turned to me asked a question that I'll never forget:

"Aren't you afraid an iPhone is going to take your job one day?"

This photo of donuts was my most popular photo on Instagram in 2014. I took it with an iPhone. 

Do I honestly believe a handheld robot would take my job? Of course not. An iPhone cannot move around and snap the photo on it's own (not yet, anyway). But do I think one day an iPhone could be a viable option for a professional camera?

Absolutely.

In any industry we would be hiding our heads in the sand if we ignored progress in technology and didn’t plan for it to affect us. Just look at the coal industry. The only solution is to continue to learn and become better.

The photo above might look simple, but I didn't just take a photo of a plate of donuts. I put that plate on top of a refrigerator, because that's where the best light was. I switched out the art behind the donuts, because it made more sense than what was there in reality. I thought about the colors and the theme and I framed it purposefully. 

Which brings me to a simple math equation:

Intention/Donuts > Camera choice

I took this photo on my iPhone when I was in France. My mother asked for a print of this photo over a similar photo I took on my professional film camera.

The more I think about it, the less intimidated I am about anything or anyone taking my job. I'll tell you why, baby angels.

In reality, the camera doesn't matter. The person behind the camera is calling all the shots. Literally.

I currently shoot weddings on a Canon Mark IV (my husband surprised me with it last month because he loves me so much and he's the best husband ever). A couple months ago, I shot them on a Mark III. Before that a Mark II and before then a 7d. I often bring along my completely manual Hasselblad from 1962 to weddings , because my clients like the look of what that camera produces. I have photos in my portfolio from the first wedding I ever shot. 

A photo taken with a camera that doesn't even have a screen.

I could walk down the street and ask a stranger to stand next to me and take a photo of a fire hydrant at the same time. I bet you that person would frame, angle, focus, and approach the subject differently than I would. 

A good picture is a good picture, and a good photographer is a good photographer.

You see, the insane, beautiful, magical thing about photography is that no one can completely duplicate someone else's image. They could frame it the same way. They could imitate the lighting and the posing choices. But it will never be the exact same picture.

I'm confident in my work, and my ability to take a picture. The camera I use is just a tool, and I can take a good photo or a bad photo with just about anything.

As an artist, there is always room to challenge yourself to be better. It’s one of the reasons artists are collectively so unhappy. We are constantly trying to one-up ourselves. So we can blame a camera all we want on why we are losing out on work, but in reality we just need to go with it and use it as a reason to grow. Become the best iPhone photographer ever. Keep looking for the best light. Don’t rely on filters to “save” an image. 

Because a bad photo with a filter is still a bad photo with a filter. 

The camera doesn’t matter. It’s how we use it that matters. And as long as we only compete against ourselves (and not other photographers or technology) an iPhone will never take your job.

After all, I will never be Annie Leibovitz, and an iPhone will never be me.

but what the heck should i wear? {a guide to choosing the perfect outfit for your photo session}

Casey Brodley for Oh Joy

If you are anything like me, whenever the time comes to socialize or go to an event, you stand in front of your closet thinking,

"How does one own so many clothes, yet have nothing to wear?"

For me, it's a matter of an outfit feeling "fresh." Sure, I have favorite outfits but I really like the reveal of a NEW look, ya dig? Luckily, since I work from home, I don't have that feeling very often anymore. But I understand it well, and I get the question a lot from clients. I'm here to help.

Now, I'm not writing this to stop you from buying that new outfit (you look CUTE, boo). I'm just here to give a list of things you should consider when choosing your outfit for your photo session.

1. Comfort = Confidence

I wore a really gorgeous gold dress to a holiday party a couple years ago. The material was silky and stretchy but it showed off just a *little* too much curve for my liking, so I wore a pair of Spanx. As the night went on, the spandex slowly curled from my upper thigh to my crotch, forming a rubber band of sorts and cutting off circulation. No matter how many times I went to the bathroom to fix the issue, it kept happening.

By the end of the night it was either a choice of going commando or putting up with the restrictive material.

My point is, everyone wants to look great. But you also want great photos. I'm not saying you shouldn't wear Spanx, or heels, or a bikini, or a suit on a 100 degree day... but...

When choosing what to wear, think about what doesn't look great if you don't feel great: your face.

I realize that some of you reading this may be like Carrie Bradshaw and are able to walk the whole perimeter of Manhattan in heels no problem and then keep going onto Brooklyn because fashion. If this is you: wear them heels, yo. If this is not you, read on.

I usually don't suggest trying out a new look for the first time. For example, I like wearing high waisted jeans, because they make me feel like I have 6-pack abs and there is no risk of anything popping out when I move around. However, if at my photo session I decided to rock my low rise flares from high school, I might risk showing off too much whale tail (man, I'm aging myself here) because I'm used to moving around in high-waisted pants where I don't have to worry about that. Cut to me constantly pulling my drawers up for 2 hours.

It's not cute.

Listen, I'm not saying DON'T wear something you feel fabulous in. The number one important thing is to feel confident. I'm just saying, prepare for comfort. Make yourself a comfort tote that you can bring along: Bring a pair of flats to walk in between locations/shots. Bring a blanket if you have an outdoor session in the cold, or to sit on bare ground. Bring an umbrella in case it rains. Bring a scarf or a sweater for a quick second look. Throw in some chapstick and a water bottle. Bring sunscreen. 

2. Minimize distraction

Not this kind of distraction.

When I talk about distraction I'm talking about clothing choices that take away attention from the star of the show: Your face. A portrait, in its essence, is meant to emphasize your face. When I take your picture I don't want anything to distract from what I want everyone to see first: your emotions, your expression, your smile.

So how do you avoid this?

• Avoid patterns that moire (this includes small, repetitive details like thin stripes, tiny dots, etc)
• Avoid big logos (unless it's related to what you want to say in the photos e.g. a wedding date or cute saying)
• Avoid very low cut shirts
• Avoid clashing colors

3. Movement

These two also took tip #5: they wore the same outfits that they wore on their first date.

I'm going to make you move around, so make sure you choose clothes that you can easily move in! Flowy outfits can make really dramatic shots, but ultimately I want you to be comfortable enough to twirl, dance, walk, run, jump, squat, hug, piggy back, swing, fly... ok, maybe not fly. But you get it.

Make sure you can move around in your outfit, or you might be all:

Or, just own it like Regina George.

4. Color

When an outfit and a location coordinate, magic happens.

I recommend to always choose color over black or white. When you wear only black, a lot of depth is lost and you end up looking like a vacant hole of black abyss. Pure white and you can risk seeing through it. I also just like color, thank you very much. Color brings personality to any photo. 

Or, maybe you're like me and just own a lot of things without color (my closet is full of gray and black so I can slip into the shadows like a phantom when I work). I recommend keeping your style, but maybe adding in an accent piece like a statement necklace or a bold scarf. Check out color palettes on Pinterest for inspiration on how to coordinate with anyone else in the photo, to avoid clashing patterns and colors.

Don't forget to think of the whole picture, so it helps to choose locations that compliment your outfit choices.

5. Significance

These ladies nailed their outfits.

This is a kind of obscure suggestion but it can add a lot of, well, meaning, to your photos. The couple in the black and white photo above wore the same outfits they wore on their first date. They also did similar things they do on dates, like eat ice cream and walk along the beach.

Significance of an outfit will mean something different to everyone. Maybe you wore the same shoes when you got a promotion, and they just make you feel like a badass. Or maybe your fiance has a favorite shirt and you decide to wear it in a boudoir photo. Or maybe your newborn just seems comfortable in only a diaper, and you want to remember this moment in his life when it's socially acceptable to wear that in public.

Once you think you have your outfit, take it for a test drive before your photo session. Wear it out to dinner one night, or while doing laundry. Is it still in one piece afterwards? Do you still feel awesome? Do you wish you bought five more of the same outfit so you could wear it as a uniform in real life?

If the answer is yes, you have your winning ensemble. If the answer is no, go through the above tips and figure out what didn't work for that outfit, and what you can add or subtract to make it perfect.

I hope this helps!

A Much Needed Update

Hello everyone!

I have been MIA on this here bloggeroo for about 6 months now, and I feel like even though I've been active on social media, I owe an explanation here as to what I've been up to, where in the world I am, and what's been happening in my life since June.

Well, the first update is I got married! We drove across the country from Los Angeles to Detroit in a 1977 Dodge RV with our 2 dogs in June, then tied the knot on June 24th.

It was the most perfect day and was totally worth the stress I put myself through, but I'll go more in depth on my wedding day in another post because I just have so much I want to reflect on about that. But, the short story is I got married and it was so fun.

Photo by GB Photography

What happened after the wedding day, though, ended up being a grand, unexpected adventure. This is an optimistic way of putting it :)

First, we bought a new car right after the wedding (as in, the Wednesday after our wedding day). It was my dream car, a Subaru Outback. We decided to buy it after I deemed our RV unreliable to make the trip back to California after the wedding. We needed a way to transport the dogs back, and investing in a new car seemed logical.

The weekend after our wedding, I photographed our friend and wedding photographer's wedding, a wedding which my husband was the best man. It was all fun and games until the officiant ran up to me, just an hour before the ceremony was about to start, asking me what the bride and groom drove because "a bus just totaled a car in the parking lot."

My husband ran up moments later, exasperated, "It's our car, Casey. The bus hit our car."

Our brand new, 3-day-old car had an estimated $8000 worth of damages after a school bus had come out of park and rolled down a hill directly into the back of it. Luckily, by some miracle, no one was injured. Except, of course, our new car.

That happened on July 1st. The collision center estimated 4-6 weeks for us to get the car back. I had a wedding in LA on July 15th that I needed to be back for. We had no way of transporting our dogs back without a car (I refuse to risk flying with them, as the stress can cause death in dogs), I really didn't want to risk breaking down in the middle of the country in our RV, and so I had no choice but to fly back alone. My husband, thank goodness, is self-employed and able to work remotely, so he volunteered as tribute to live in Michigan at his mom's with our dogs (thanks, Mom!) while the car got fixed. I flew back to LA the first week of July and shot the weddings I was contracted for, and planned to fly back to Michigan in August when the car was repaired and make the cross-country trip back which we intended to make after the wedding.

So, the first 5 weeks of our marriage were destined to be spent without each other in separate states.

(People weren't joking when they said marriage changes everything! HAH.)

During this time, without my husband or my dogs, I had a lot of time to really reflect on our future, as both small business owners and a family. We had already been discussing moving out of Los Angeles sometime within the next 5 years, but I had an inclination that the accident was the universe's way of telling us, "It's time."

We decided to turn lemons into lemonade, and move to Michigan to be closer to our families and try and grow our businesses there while a bunch of our stuff (from the wedding and road trip) and our dogs were already there. For anyone who knows what it's like living far away from family, you understand how difficult it is as you get older to make time to visit, especially on important days like holidays. Combine that with the growing difficulty and cost of living in a major city, the pros of moving just seemed to outweigh the cons. We never saw ourselves affording property in California, I never really saw an end game in my business, I had qualms about raising my future children in a big city, and I felt like I had accomplished way more in my almost 10 years in LA than I ever would've expected before I went out there.

I could hang my hat on this period of my life and look back on it fondly and proudly.

That's my painting, and the most full-circle LA story I have.

So, we spent the next 3 months looking for a new place to live, packing up our entire life in LA, flying back and forth for contracted weddings, driving across the country one more time, and rebuilding our network of industry contacts in a totally new place we've never worked before. It was an extremely daunting task.

Our cute house in Michigan.

During this time, I went through every emotion. I was excited and exhilarated for this new challenge, but really sad at the same time that I was leaving a place I considered a home, regular and reliable gigs, clients I adored, and friends I loved on the West Coast.

I felt anxiety every day.

Despite my best efforts to stay organized, some parts of the move were just a big mess. I found myself traveling for work and feeling myself get further and further behind as my attention was split in so many directions. For the first time I felt a little out of place, like I was trying to acclimate to a new country altogether, not a new state. It was an almost out-of-body experience trying to explain what was happening, so I just stopped trying.

The goodbye cake from my girls at Oh Joy!

But we got through it. I've started booking more work in Michigan for 2018 (I won't have to travel by plane for every wedding, thank goodness!), and I am seeing a positive turn for both my husband and I for quality of life, our businesses, and everything that we've built up to this point together.

After this experience, I am finally starting to feel caught up on both work and happiness. I truly do feel like taking risks like this is necessary for progressing in life, and challenging yourself is the one thing that make life worth living. When it came to my goals, everything started to point away from Los Angeles. I started to realize my priorities were changing, and a fresh start seemed like a really good choice for us.

"Sometimes you just have to be the boss of dancing." - Michael Scott

So, that's what's been up with me. I promise I will be blogging more again because it was one thing that brought me a lot of joy last year. I'm also focusing on a new personal project, which I'm really excited to share when it all comes together.

As this year comes to a close, I'm taking this time to reflect on everything I'm grateful for and how life can change in an instant. I'm dedicated to moving forward with a positive outlook and learning from mistakes, bettering my business, and pursuing what makes me happy. 

And I'm never moving across the country again. 

(At least not for another 10 years.)

Bring it on, 2018.

What I learned from working in the Paparazzi Industry

I visited Los Angeles for the first time in January of 2009 and I moved here in February 2009. The sole reason I was able to move to Los Angeles at that time was because it was the first place I was able to find a well paying job somewhat related to the industry I was attempting to break into. It had a lot to do with the economy at the time. The housing market crashed, Wall Street came to a dead stop and hiring in New York City came to a standstill.

I came to LA to visit a friend of mine, and I instantly fell in love with the city. It was nothing like New York. It was SO BIG. There was so much space to move around! There were mountains to hike on IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CITY! It was WARM in January!

I started applying to jobs in Los Angeles. The job I ended up landing was a photo editing position for a company I had known because of my internships in New York the prior year. It was with a celebrity photo agency. That's basically a nice way of saying "paparazzi photo house."

The face of someone with Stockholm Syndrome.

I was honestly the perfect fit for this job at the time. I was young and loved reading gossip blogs like TMZ and Perez Hilton-- I was sucked in by the Britney Incident of 2007. Plus, I had already made connections at publications in New York, so editing and marketing paparazzi photos felt like it was going to be the easiest and most fun job in the world. 

And it was, in the beginning.

The office was in a 3-story loft in one of the trendiest areas of LA: Larchmont Village. I worked in an office of 5 other women-- all attractive and in their 20s. I know, this sounds like a bad romantic comedy already. It was great.

I instantly clicked with these girls. They not only were pretty but were all hilariously funny and sweet. I laughed all day. We watched Oprah every day until that went off the air and then we watched Ellen every day. We rarely left the office so we would eat our meals together and talk about everything. Our bosses were hardly ever there. These girls became my family.

My only job was to read gossip magazines and blogs, straighten and color correct photos, and create stories to go along with caption-less pictures of celebrities. 

And I got to bring my puppy to work with me. It wasn't all bad.

I learned about the Daily Mail and ate up gossip about British socialites with names of fruit and fairies. I learned how to edit photos in bulk and how to pitch an exclusive story. I learned that publicists alerted paps when their client would go shopping or to lunch with a new "date." I learned the way publicity worked in Hollywood. I learned how to get free clothes by deciphering the stitching on a butt or the cut of a purse and pitch those photos to the designers' PR agency.

I learned that I could never turn my phone off because someone important might die and I will have to drop everything I'm doing to scroll through our archive and combine all their photos in a gallery to send off to publications and monetize off their death.

I learned how desperate people were to make money on all sides of the business. 

I learned how people other than the paps make money off these photos. Like the mom who tipped us about her underaged daughters on the beach in bikinis. Or the boyfriend who brought one of our paps on the vacation with him and his actress girlfriend so he could make money off of the photos. 

But I think the biggest thing I learned while I worked there was how important it is to stand up for yourself.

You see, I worked for a man who had been in the business since the 70s. He was a force, to put it lightly. He was intriguing to talk to and had lengthy, grandiose insider stories about celebrities so famous both you and your grandma know who they are. He had a booming voice in an accent so thick I often couldn't understand what he was saying. He also had the worst temper I had ever seen.

For years I put up with verbal abuse. But it was tolerable verbal abuse because I only had to see him a handful of times a week for less than an hour. When he came in happy he would bring treats, like donuts or small gifts.

One time after a particularly bad episode he bought me a Venus fly trap, which was an interesting apology gift to receive to say the least. Not only did I have to figure out how to keep the thing alive but the f*cking thing had teeth. 

He'd fire us if we talked back, or defended ourselves, or if there was a decline of bikini photos that week. He'd fire us if we left anything where it wasn't supposed to be. He'd fire us if the towels weren't washed (not our job) or if we forgot to bring in a plant (also not our job).

He'd hire us back immediately, of course, and hoped we had "learned our lesson."

He'd tell me my pants were fitting too tight and would leave diet pills on my desk.

He once threatened to fire me because I refused to write an obituary for someone who wasn't dead yet.

He once fired me for leaving a loaf of bread in the kitchen because I had an "attitude" when I told him it was leftover from my sandwich at lunch and I planned on bringing it home that night.

His abuse became so bad that I'd often come home in tears and my boyfriend wanted to teach him his own lesson (which I appreciated but wouldn't allow). 

Honestly, working in that industry was a lot like that Venus Fly Trap. It was an oddly alluring yet horribly dangerous industry to be a part of. One of our paps died while on the job. We all became accustomed to hateful words being thrown at us by both our boss and the public. I even received a death threat once.

It finally all came to an end when the company collapsed and had to be sold to a major stock agency. I was let go and soon afterwards began to work for Oh Joy! 

The people I worked with are all still connected to each other because we all experienced a form of Stockholm Syndrome by working there. We all are successful and doing different things, several of us are wedding photographers (and can you blame us? When you go through all that you just want to go to a job where everyone is happy!).

It took me a while to gain my confidence back after my experience there. The most important thing I learned was that it's important to stand up for yourself. I could've left, but the steady pay blinded me from keeping myself sane.

I learned that no matter how hopeless it seems, you can always change the situation you're in. It just takes some help and support to make it happen. Nothing is worth being unhappy or putting up with abuse of any kind.

I also learned that I don't give a f*ck about celebrity gossip.