I’ve Sold My Soul
Well, not really. But I did sell one of my two photos on Friday night.
Artist + Asshat = Arthat
On Saturday I attended the Inman Park Festival. I brought my camera and decided that for the most part I was going to shoot from the hip. I have some shots that I’ll be uploading as the week moves along.
During my walking about the festival I stopped occasionally to shoot things. I’m fairly aware that some artists don’t like their artwork photographed, so for the most part I didn’t stop to shoot anything inside of the booths. At one booth I saw these colorful foam triangles which were mounted on sticks and bunched into milk crates in between two booths. So I stopped, bent down to one knee (because I was eating an Italian ice) and took a closeup shot. This is what happened after I took one shot:
Bitchy Saleswoman: Do you want to ask me anything?
Me: Huh?
Bitchy Saleswoman: Do you want to ask me anything?
Me: What?
Bitchy Saleswoman: Who are you with?
Me: No one, I’m just out having fun.
Bitchy Saleswoman: Do you want to ask me anything?
Me: Err, do you mind if I shoot?
Bitchy Saleswoman: Those are copyrighted and you are not allowed to take photos of them without my permission. I will sue you and that will cost you a lot of money.
Me: Are you serious?
Bitchy Saleswoman: Those are copyrighted.
Me: (showing her my image) Here, do you want to see what I shot?
Bitchy Saleswoman: Those are copyrighted and you are not allowed to take photos of them without my permission. I will sue you and that will cost you a lot of money.
Me: (showing her my image) Fine! I’ll fucking delete my photo. ::turning and walking away::
What an ass! If you want to recreate her allegedly-copyrighted piece of shit, here’s what you do:
- Get a piece of white foam about four inches square and one inch thick.
- Cut the foam into an equilateral triangle approximately three inches on each side and one inch thick.
- Lightly spray the triangle with a stripe or two of a single colorful color such as purple.
- Shove a wooden rod into the bottom.
- Make sure you go to festivals and overcharge for this item and harass anyone who attempts to “infringe upon your copyright.”
Here’s the kicker…. my photo would not have given you this much detail. You would have never known what the hell I shot, it would have been an abstract color photo. It’s only because she was so argumentative and unfriendly that I’ve posted this description.
And although I am no lawyer, I doubt that she had a copyright on her items and I believe that I was within my right to take a photo of them since the festival was being held on public property.
Communications Breakdown
It was a great thing that I got to see my friend Tamara on Friday before I headed to Castleberry Hill for the gallery exhibit. Why? Because we were supposed to meet up at the Inman Park Festival on Saturday, but AT&T‘s inability to provide reliable cellphone service in Inman Park made it impossible to call one another and I never ran into her even though I was there for nearly eight hours.
I was not the only one experiencing poor service on Saturday. It seemed that anyone else trying to communicate using AT&T’s network (and we know that iPhones are rather popular) was also having problems.
By the time that we finally communicated I was at home, into my second beer, and completely warn out.
ITP Flickr Pic
My skyline photo sold. It sold very late in the show, so I had my doubts that I was going to sell either of the two shots.
Once the person took the shot off the wall I looked at the wall and thought “Whoa, I need to take a photo of that.” Good thing I own the copyright to my own photography. 
Junky Yard Wars ’09: And So It Begins…
I spent about two hours working on my yard yesterday. If I had to guess I’d say I got no more than twenty percent of the work I want to accomplish completed.
I got the lawnmower started (whew) and dragged it up to the front lawn and gave that a big cut. With much of the clippings I created rings of debris around my front yard trees. While cutting I declared the mockingbird the most opportunistic of all birds. Mere seconds would pass before a mockingbird would swoop down to eat any of the bugs that my mower would uncover. I also managed to bring out my leaf blower and clear off my front walkway, driveway (but not carport for some reason), and the walkway which leads to my back yard. By the time I was done with these tasks I was whooped.
For the remainder of this week I am going to attempt to leave work early enough in order to do some more of the yard tasks which I’ve identified as necessary. Wish me luck, I’m going to need it.
RealiTV Update: The Amazing Race — Are You Kidding Me?
About six weeks ago my friend Stacy and I started betting on each week’s outcome on The Amazing Race. Since then we’ve had no winner, a week of not The Amazing Race, a week where no one got kicked off, a week where I won, and now a week where the episode ended To Be Continued. WHAT?!
I was certain last night that Jen and Keisha were going to get the boot from the show because of their inability to perform water sports…
… and I should admit that I am always stunned to see adults who cannot swim. I guess that I was fortunate to be brought up around water (coastal New York, swimming pools, and coastal Florida) so swimming and water have never been an issue….
but noooooo, when the redheads arrived on the mat to meet Phil they were informed that the leg of the race was not over.
The foot massage challenge intrigued me. I can’t imagine suffering for ten minutes while someone pushed and contorted my foot in the name of “health.”
Is it just me or does this season seem to rely too heavily on taxi cabs? While I was a somewhat latecomer to The Amazing Race world, it always seemed to me that the contestants had to do more driving on their own.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – decent, big day today for reasons which are not bloggable (not female related, work related).
Current Music – listening to Leo Laporte’s “The Tech Guy” podcast
Website Of The Day – Suffer from internet addiction? Use Keep Me Out to limit your ability to surf to time wasting sites like InsideThePerimeter.com. Wait! No! Don’t do that!
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – yard work
Monday Morning Weigh-In – dammit, I forgot. I’m sure I wouldn’t be pleased, but I want to be consistent
Monthly
Foot Mileage – 3 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 1 (25) [yep, I was too lazy to make the bed yesterday]
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 26
Marta Rides – 0
April Goals
none, and this is not an April Fools joke
2009 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 190 pounds (today’s weight was 199.5 pounds)
- Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
- Earn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalapeño Beach SmugMug account I opened the other day.
- Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
- Attend at least one professional photography workshop
The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C (iPhone development) and Ruby on Rails (Black Sheep web page concept)
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
Not sure copyright covers a piece of foam on a stick… as I thought it was more for written works/ideas… and it certainly wouldn’t cover a PICTURE that you took in a PUBLIC venue… although your picture would be, I believe!!!! stupid.
I skipped the festival and opted instead to spend 9 hours scraping the side of the 1st Ave house at ATL code enforcements request… bitches. If you’d like to join me this FRI, I’ll be having an encore visit covering priming and painting… I like my new brick house more and more!!!!
Good hash yesterday, shigalishousness and all the trouble makers were at the beach wedding!
Ugh, that sounds like more work than I’m looking to tackle. I’m getting enough manual labor with my yard work plans. Besides, I’ve just accepted a meeting notice for a Friday meeting from 5pm-6pm (good times, good times).
I skipped yesterday’s has because I’m finally getting over the poison ivy I picked up two weeks ago. I’ll be at a public event next week and don’t wish to suffer again.
Beach wedding?
You know, I think I got turned around on that one. What I was going for was “it wouldn’t cover a scenario/venue/outdoor festival that you had taken a PICTURE of”…
Image and likeness can be copyrighted, for instance I know that there is copyright on the Eiffel Tower (good luck tracking down photogs, France), but this was honestly nothing more than a triangle on a stick.
What’s odd is that had I just walked away without deleting the photo and she tried to use my photo for anything I could have claimed copyright infringement against her.
And because I was in a public space and did not have to purchase a ticket to enter (which almost always nullifies a photographer’s right to photograph), I believe that I was legally able to take as many photos as I desired.
I walked away because I was not in a confrontational mood, even at that it really spoiled my day. What’s sad about all of this is that it never had to happen. Had she politely asked me not to take photos I would have smiled and walked away.
You would think she would want welcomed the pubilicity your photo might have afforded her…..why are people so angry…wrath..one of the seven deadly sins!
Aside from that…congrats on selling a picture!!! That’s awesome.
Thanks Sal. Selling a photo is no where near as impressive as running seventy-one (71) miles, however. I bow in your general direction.
Man…. I wish we could edit our own posts…obviously my brain is still too tired to think this morning…….
I meant to say…you would think she would have welcomed the publicity
If it’s any consolation I read it as you meant it.
::looking into seeing if people can edit their comments::
Yeah, the poison ivy was in abundance. I know I brushed my cheek/ear on some towards the end and bathed in alcohol (with a good internal dose just to make sure), but (crosses fingers) haven’t seen it yet…
Believe me, I forced myself to work on the house only after getting 2 quotes, both over 2k to paint the whole house… it’ll take a few weekends, but right now, I’m cash poor, so it wasn’t going to happen. My cost, not including time, will be around $125 bucks, so I can’t bitch too much… or not that anyone would listen!!!!
Besides, there is some satisfaction at having done it myself.
Hey, one picture sold is one more than most of us have sold; stop being Eeyore Paulie, will ya?
I would have just laughed at that lady & walked away, it isn’t like she knows your name, so how is she going to track you down to sue you?
RE: Amazing Race – I know I’m not a great swimmer, but I can’t imagine being that freaked out by the water. I really think every child should be required to take swiming lessons. We were laughing at the synchronized diving attempts, I almost wish we could go somewhere and try, to see if it is really that hard.
I am being positive!
And I hope to sell more photos. I picked up some valuable information on Friday night, and again seeing what people bought and paid while hanging out at the Inman Park Festival Saturday. I have no dreams of making it a full-time profession, but if I can offset some of my costs.
I kinda wish I had just walked away. It would have been today’s photo.
I wondered the same thing about the diving. Couldn’t they just walk and count together and come much closer? It’s not like they had to enter the water head first, or even perform some acrobatic act in the air, they just had to jump.
Hey Barb…the civic center pool has a couple of diving boards…you could try it out there but let me know when you go so I can come watch!
Martha: how’d you do at Chickapee?
And Paulie don’t sell yourself short….you sold a photo!! I still think that’s awesome!
The TLS and C*ms on the Ceiling extravaganza! I thought I’d seen many things in my hashing life already, this however, was NOT on the list! I wish them well!
Sal – excellent idea – I might have to get Allan & go try over there at the civic center pool. If & when we do go, I’ll let you know. I wonder how many other people might be trying that this week.
Clearly, the lady was b!tchy because she was trying to make a living by selling foam on a stick and trying to keep shlubs like Paulie from stealing her ideas!!
Sal, you continue to impress me with you abilities… I’m just glad that somebody in this group is picking up our slack in the overachieving department.
And besides being chief judge at the rce in Roswell on Sunday- thanks for coming out Laura, Bob and Bag o’ Tricks, I managed to demonstrate the incorrect way to do a front wheelie at the Wheelhopper 300. I believe there were witnesses, but not any that read this.
-FP
Hey, has anyone heard of my new exciting development? I call my spoked circle a “wheel.”
Paulie – I think you should have immediately turned and taken a close up of the b*tch herself… hah! Copyright this!!
I wish that I had thought of that when it happened.
Paulie, I really like the photo that is left, I’ve been sitting her thinking if there is any place to hang it at the house.
Sal, Chicopee was fun, it was a tough course and Jerry beat me by 8 seconds, a win is a win right? I’ll get him next time.
Other than the race I accomplished nothing this weekend. Saturday was spent drinking OTP and Sunday was spent drinking ITP.
Artists don’t have the money to pay lawyers to sue anybody. Unless Paulie’s photo ends up on the cover of Time magazine, it’s not worth anyone’s while to enforce their copyright through legal means. But just in case, maybe I should start cruising art fairs.
I’d love to see you walking around festivals in a t-shirt that read “Copyright Lawyer for Hire”, Larry.
i think i would have cheerfully told her that it’s helpful if you know the person’s name when suing them, and then would have told her my name was shirley franklin, or something. =]
AT&T is the suck. Half the time my phone just displays “Searching…” and the other half it drops calls like the Detroit Lions receivers drop passes. I wish Verizon would get on the job and come out with some sweet phones. I’m tired of asking them when they’ll have something from this century and they start yammering on about the network. All I want is an Iphone that works on Verizon. Is that so fucking hard? Looking forward to the Palm Pre showing up on Verizon, according to the internet Sprint only has a 6 month exclusive.