Just to let you all know you can come down and see me at the Molinuex wedding fair on Thursday 17th of June. Doors open from 6:30pm until 8pm

It’s only a short show but its sure to be packed full of great suppliers and lots of bubbly brides. You don’t have to be a fan of Wolves football club to enjoy the show as its a great opportunity to view suppliers products and get some great advice while your there!

Map and directions to the Molineux can be found here

UPDATE

Today I received news that our government have backed down on clause 43 of the digital rights bill.

Many thousands of photographers have campaigned against this clause that could have seen our livelihoods threatened. Congratulations to us all and many thanks to the people who helped.

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I have been aware for around a year that the government intended to rewrite a large proportion of the UK copyright laws surrounding the digital online use of photographs, in fact, I wrote about in this blog article. I was also made aware a few months ago on how the government planned to give non-commercial websites free reign on any image they so desire in an attempt to “curb copyright infringement” and to “make getting clearance to use an image easier” these statements are not only laughable but they are totally ludicrous. Its similar to saying we are removing all national speed limits in an attempt to reduce speeding offences. There has been a petition set up on the 10 Downing street website and I urge all of you to sign up here.

The government has now gone one step further by trying to force through the Digital economy bill. This bill basically states, among other things, that if the copyright owner of a photograph can not be found after a reasonable search, commercial publications can use said work after paying a small fee to a collecting body. The bill calls these photographs “orphaned works” and as the copyright owner of an image used in this way you are able to apply to receive whats left of this tiny fee after both the collecting authority and the government have had their share, thats assuming you notice your image is being used in the first place.

To compound the problems the bill makes no definition of what a reasonable search is and makes no attempt to ensure orphaned works are avoided in the first place. In virtually all occasions that a photographer is either commissioned by a publication, or a publication legally licences an image, they state that no copyright information can be placed on the image and in many cases that are not obliged to print a by line stating who took the image and both of these two actions will lead to orphaned works. Once a professional photographer loses their right to control where their images are reproduced they also lose the right to this revenue stream which will push prices up to cover this missing revenue. It also removes a photographers right to decide where and for what purpose their photographs are used for, for instance, I may decline the use of my images for uses that I find either distasteful or morally objectionable, once this bill is passed all of my wishes and the wishes of my clients will be ignored after a “reasonable search”.

If your reading this as either a customer or as someone with an interest of photography please do not assume this only applies to professional photographers, in fact it may apply more to you that it does to me. I am fairly easy to find, a search for Martyn Greswolde on google.co.uk shows that any of the links from the first page will get to my contact information. I also embed code (called IPTC data) into every single photograph I take with my contact details, web address and copyright information. How many casual photographers are this easy to find? to compound the issue many casual photographers post images on sites such as Flickr using nicknames that would be almost impossible to trace back to an individual, so your images are more at risk than mine.

You may think that it would be cool and flattering if your images were used and if you could receive a couple of pounds for the privilege everything is great but what if your image is used to advertise an embarrassing product or worse for something you find questionable? You would have no recourse to have the image removed but you would still receive the few pounds if you could prove you took the image. There are several petitions on the 10 Downing street website relating to this bill and they can be found here, I would urge everyone of you to read these petitions and sign up for them.

Once again the UK government have proven they can not be trusted with individuals rights and are not concerned by public or small businesses concerns or opinions.

There are a lot of web resources available on these topics, a few I have found useful are here-
Long but very detailed – http://www.copyrightaction.com/forum/uk-gov-nationalises-orphans-and-bans-non-consensual-photography-in-public?page=1
or a more concise post – http://www.wirefresh.com/uk-photographers-stop-government-plans-to-strip-you-of-your-copyright/

I have just been informed the post that contained my review of 2009 has disappeared from my site. It was posted during the server change which is maybe where my post has got too!

Anyway, here is the reposted review of 2009 in movie form

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This is a short video of some of my favourite shots of the year.

This list is by no means exhaustive, I had to keep editing the list down so I could bring the video in under six minutes. I think it is a true reflection of my work this year though and I’m very proud of it.

I’m sure your all aware that the 2010 winter Olympics are underway in Vancouver. You may or may not know that the opening and closing ceremonies of the olympics are the most watched events on TV.

The Boston Big Picture has some pretty amazing images of the ceremony on display here.

Yesterday Apple released information on their much anticipated tablet called the iPad. Speculation of this device had been blowing around the internet for quite a while but it reached fever pitch at the beginning of the year when Apple announced a ‘media event’

Since its announcement it seems to have split opinion right down the middle. All of the tech geeks and apples pro users seem to be let down, frustrated and just plain angry that apple hasn’t released a tablet for them. Consumers and business analysts however seem to be looking much more favourably on the new device claiming it fills a new role not currently (or adequately) filled by any other device. Now while I definitely fall in the the first group of people I actually agree with the second group of people.

When you think most laptop users only really use their devices for surfing the web, listening to music, sending emails and watching films, this device does all of that but comes with a reported 10 hour battery life all for $500 (we will wait to see what Apple think is a fair conversion to pounds) Yes your tied into apples app store and iTunes but is that such a big deal? to average consumers I don’t think it is. The device currently can not run applications in the background (unless they are Apples pre-installed apps) now this is an issue but the much rumoured OS4 due in the next few months is reported to fix that issue.

Yes I would have loved to see a Snow Leopard running photo munching behemoth that could replace a laptop but why would I really need such a device when I could just by a laptop? Even if apple did build such a device it would be a minimum of five times the price of the iPad.

The real power of this device, much like its iPhone cousin before it, is the App store. Once developers start creating some specific apps for the iPad its uses will become more apparent.

Apple have taken a risk putting a new product category into the market place but I think they may well succeed.

While I was at the Chillington hall wedding open day yesterday I was told by two couples they were either having their photographs taken by a friend or by someone who was charging them a couple of hundred pounds for the day. I really can not stress enough how much a risk this is.

When things go bad they can have a great impact on your wedding day and for a long time after, an example of this can be found on the BBC’s website and a text version can also be found of the Daily Mails site. A couple have taken their wedding photographer to court, and won damages after the pictures they provided were of a very poor quality. Yes the couple have won their court battle but for the rest of their married life they will still be without their wedding pictures.

With the advent of cheap good quality cameras and even cheaper software it is incredibly easy for anyone to set themselves up as a wedding photographer. With £440 pounds you could buy an entry level digital SLR camera and a copy of Photoshop elements and sell yourself as a wedding photographer. A lot of the people that do this work full time in their day job so they can afford to charge next to nothing to cover a wedding or worse still charge you the same price as a reputable photographer for their services. The main problem with this is for your £440 you do not get a manual telling you all the experience you need to have to be a successful wedding photographer, the fact is there is no book that is able to substitute for years of experience.

The other most important thing missing is back up equipment. I have had two issues this year where I have had to use my back up equipment. These issues are fairly rare but like all electronic equipment, cameras can fail or ‘lock up’. Because I carry back up equipment to each and every event, both times this year I have been able to switch gear and continue shooting without comprising the quality of coverage I pride myself on.

There are several ways you can avoid future disappointment when choosing your wedding photographer,

• Chose an experienced photographer who is able to provide several testimonials and contact details for a couple of them so you can check their validity
• Check your photographer is a member of a photographic society such as the SWPP, MPA, RPS etc.
• Ensure your photographer has adequate back up equipment
• Ensure your photographer has personal liability insurance as well as public liability insurance
• Ensure you see more than one album from just one wedding, it is quite easy to create an album of a collection of weddings images
• Chose a photographer that has a professional looking website, while website are much cheaper these days, it still takes time and effort to keep it up to date.
• Finally, if the price seems too good to be true, it generally is.

If you follow the points I have listed above this will help you avoid some of the issues mentioned in the BBC article posted above.

If you think about it, other than each other and your wedding rings, the only thing you will have after your wedding day is your photographs. Having a wonderful collection of images in a beautiful album that you can look back at for generations after your wedding day is worth spending a little time now making sure a cheaper option will not cost your dearly in the future.

I am happy to announce I am now the recommended photographer for Alrewas Hayes near Fradley and Lichfield, Staffordshire.

This fabulous venue is set in the middle of the country side and only opened this year, it is a fusion of rustic settings with clean contemporary styling. They hold corporate, private parties as well as weddings at the venue and as its a family run business service is of the highest caliber.

I will be shooting some shots for their new brochure shortly but until then I will post this photo from a recent wedding I shot there.

I had a great day at Chillington Hall yesterday with the girls from Elegant venues promoting the Hall as a wedding venue. You may already know I am one of the recommended suppliers for Chillington so I was in the marquee all day talking to prospective brides and grooms about their wedding photography.

I think we had around 50 people booked in but we saw many more than that as people visiting the food and country fayre were tempted inside by our plush surroundings.

I have included a few images from inside the marquee which gives a taste of what to expect if you book this fabulous venue and if you are thinking of booking get in contact as dates are being booked up quickly.

I just wanted to let everyone know that our flash new site is up and ready for your visit.
The site is designed to show full screen images up to 1600 x 1000 so if your used to small images in the middle of the screen your in for a surprise! so maximise the browser, turn the speakers up and enjoy.

I have been working on this site for quite a few months and I’m really happy with how it looks but I would love to hear your comments too! I think this new site is more in keeping with my style of photography and even though I was still getting compliments on the old site this new one is a big step forward.
I even have a new look blog, it still has all the old posts and comments so you can still catch up with my latest weddings and thoughts. Now the new site is live I might even get chance to put some new content on there!

I was recently made aware of “Photographers for Charity”.It was started in the UK by Andrea Lane, A photographer in Hertfordshire. The whole idea around Photographers for Charity is to raise money for different charities by offering a couple free wedding photography in return for raising money. This year the chosen charity is Cancer research UK. To tie the whole thing together the organisers want people to nominate deserving couples, so If you know a couple that you believe deserves free wedding photography, either because they’ve been touched by cancer in some way or maybe in these hard times would not be able to afford a photographer then head over to their website for more information but do it quickly as the closing date for nominations is 30th June 2009 with the lucky couples being informed by 14th July.


Each photographer has agreed to offer photographic coverage and, as a minimum, a high resolution disk to the winning couple completely free of charge as long as they have raised a minimum of £300 for the charity. If I am available to cover one of the weddings I will also be donating all profits raised in the sale of prints from the couples online gallery.


I have been involved in raising money for different charities since I was at school, organising talent shows, quizzes and karaoke parties but by donating my services I am going to be able to help the charity and give a couple some wonderful memories from their wedding day who may not have been in a position to afford a photographer for themselves.