Author and Friend – Jess E. Weiss

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on May 5, 2011

Jess Weiss with Russell Brand at Operation Warrior Wellness

I guess no one would be surprised to say you only have one mother and father but you can have numerous heroes and mentors. I’ve had a few over the years, including John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther Kind Jr.. The question for me is how many true heroes have you met? Author, Jess Weiss is a combination of my brother, father, Rabbi, Priest, and close friend. He is also a true hero. When my dad and mom passed away I went to Jess, when my brother passed away I went to Jess, and lastly when my son passed away who did I go to – Jess of course. To say jess, is a visionary or a prophet is an understatement. Jess is a man with so much love, warmth, and passion in his heart and soul and he shares it with everybody on a no charge basis. His latest book “Warrior to Spiritual Warrior: The Soldier’s Journey” is an absolute must read for everyone.

http://www.warriortospiritualwarrior.com

The 25th Anniversary Edition of the Original Groundbreaking Chronicle of Near-Death Experiences.

THE VESTIBULE

Jess E. Weiss

In 1972, three years before Raymond Moody’s Life after Life and twenty years before Betty J. Eadie’s Embraced by the Light, Jess E. Weiss edited and wrote the groundbreaking book that answered the age-old question, “What happens when we die?” Now Pocket Books will publish the 25th Anniversary Edition of Weiss’s THE VESTIBULE (a Pocket Books Trade Paperback).

THE VESTIBULE was one of the first books to broach the subject of life after death and record experiences of those who died and then returned. It is a collection of remarkable stories told by men and women who were pronounced dead, only to return to their bodies and resume living. Their reports of journeying to death are so vivid, so full of joy and peace, and so startlingly alike that they give overwhelming evidence for the survival of the spirit after life. “The purpose and motive of THE VESTIBULE is to establish with more certainty that there is an afterlife,” wrote Jess Weiss, “thereby alleviating fully or to a degree the sting of death.”

Since publication, THE VESTIBULE has been used extensively in hospices for the terminally ill for its comforting and healing message. Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, The prominent physician and bestselling author of On Death and Dying, used Weiss’s book in her workshops to reassure dying patients and their families, and thousands of people around the world found solace in the accounts in Weiss’s book. “I cannot express on paper the feelings I felt while reading your book,” wrote one grateful reader. “Your book showed me that death is not frightening for the ill person. He welcomes it, after all that he has been through. For me, the subject of death no longer makes me tremble.”

Forever timely, THE VESTIBULE has been, is, and will continue to be a Spiritual guidepost for every person, leading to a greater understanding of life and Death … and the afterlife.

POCKET BOOKS-A division of Simon & Schuster Inc-1972, 1997

Liz Hartman, Director of Publicity,

Filters: Love them or Hate them

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on May 4, 2011

It’s pretty obvious that everything in my blog is my opinion, and my opinion is not necessarily fact. I may think I’m right, but if another photographer has a totally different way of getting to the same place, then I take my Beret off to them

So, here it goes – back in the day, when we had 52, 62, 72, 82, and 95mm threads, and shot 3 different types of black and white and color film, we had lots of filters. At the end of that era, my attitude was that any additional air glass surface that was put in-between the lens and the subject it could have a tendency of degrading the image. So, I consider less is more. Or, minimalistic filtration. I believed it, taught it, and damn well thought I was right. I never really believed a UV filter should be used to protect the lens. Today, many people would say that with Photoshop and high-end digital photography, you don’t need filters. I personally try to do almost everything in camera, with a minimal amount of Photoshop. I may have come to that decision because I’m not as proficient as others with Photoshop. Or, it just could be that’s the way I was brought up in photography. When it comes to filters, I only use Singh-Ray filters- their high-intensity, Gold-N-Blue, the Vari-ND, and I am looking forward to the new Vari-ND. On a previous blog, I made a rig to use the Variable Polarizer, the Vari-ND for video. My good friend Carl Saiver, of Sartek Industries, looked at what I made and said something to the effect of, “you have to be ___ ___ kidding!” He removed it from my camera and said that he’d have something for me in a week. A week later what appeared was a simple, elegant design for variable focusing and changes in filtration from either the left or right side with no noise or movement, and it’s super smooth. Just want to let you know about my friend Carl – he’s a genius! Carl’s a world-class engineer, designer, and underwater maven. I strongly recommended going to his website. He makes some of the greatest lights in the world. Also, don’t forget to check out Singh-Ray’s filters you may be pleasantly surprised. To all the ships at sea, I’m signing off.

http://www.sarind.com/

http://www.singh-ray.com/

Self-Timer: One of your Best Friends

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on May 3, 2011

Some of the little-known, inexpensive, non-descript, built-in accessories have been ignored for years. One of those would be the self-timer. Some of you may remember the ones that you had to crank. Then, there were ones that you had to load and press a button and you’d hear that buzzing sound. The beautiful thing about today’s self-timer is that you have 2 separate settings, one for 2 seconds and one for 10 seconds. It is invariably a great tool for close-up and macro, stationary landscapes, waterscapes, table-top and catalog work, etc. No matter how great your tripod is, no matter how steady you are, no matter how fast your shutter speed is, when you put your face, your nose and your hand on a camera, there’s going to be some movement. Compose, light your shot, step back, take a sip of red wine, and hit the self-timer. Okay, no red wine maybe Green tea. Okay, red wine and green tea.

Some Corporations Won’t be Happy Until They Destroy Us All

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on May 2, 2011

APA Responds to Getty Images’ Proposed Changes to Contributor Agreements

April 2011 – Getty Images recently announced that it intends to make a number of significant changes to its standard contributor agreements. For instance, the new agreements will allow Getty Images to include all royalty free (RF) content in any subscription products and also will eliminate the ability of contributors to prevent their content from being licensed in multimedia products.

Getty Images also has proposed changes that will allow it to move image content across license models by “removing the ability for contributors to opt out of images moving from RM to RF.” For editorial contributors, Getty Images also intends to make changes that will enable it “to more easily modify content use across more and new license models, products, services and selling environments, including subscriptions, high-volume customer deals and new or emerging pricing, licensing and payment models.”

According to Getty Images, these changes are intended to allow Getty Images to more freely use content in ways that were unforeseen previously in order to meet current and future customer needs.

Following on the heels of its Premium Access subscription product—which has eroded significantly the licensing fees being achieved for rights managed (RM) content—these modifications clearly signal that Getty Images’ top priority is expanding its own market share by whatever means necessary, irrespective of the damage it causes to the rights and interests of contributing photographers and image partners.

It is APA’s position that these changes are unnecessary and that it is inappropriate for Getty Images to continue to leverage its position in the industry to force contributors to relinquish control over which licensing model shall apply to their creative works. Rights managed licensing has been in existence for decades and is the preferred method of licensing high-value content.

Allowing Getty Images to place RM content into subscription products and move content between licensing models irrespective of the author’s wishes are major departures from industry norms, and they come at too significant of a price. If Getty Images is permitted to move imagery from the RM to the RF paradigm without the consent of and without previously informing the contributor, it becomes almost impossible to license that imagery as RM ever again.

Moreover, because Getty Images controls both the marketing of contributor content and the parameters for prioritizing its customers’ search results with very little accountability, there is a tremendous risk in also allowing Getty Images the authority to siphon RM imagery into the new and different models.

The erosion of the RM model also is concerning because it makes it more difficult for copyright owners to track usage of their creative works and protect their copyrights. Getty Images obviously realizes the importance of tracking third-party usage and monitoring copyrights because it does so vigorously for its wholly-owned content.

APA is disappointed that Getty Images fails to appreciate that these same concerns also are important to its contributors and image partners. For the stock photography industry to flourish, major distributors like Getty Images must respect the fundamental tenets of the rights managed licensing model and they must cooperate with and assist photographers in protecting their copyrights rather than consistently deferring to their customers who are infringing copyrights.

Because APA is very concerned by the changes being proposed by Getty Images, we have retained Nelson & McCulloch LLP, a New York-based law firm which focuses its practice on copyright law and litigation ( http://www.nelsonmcculloch.com), to help us develop a response to these changes and open a dialogue with Getty Images to address this issue.

Nelson & McCulloch have handled a number of cases and matters involving Getty Images and have served as litigation and arbitration counsel for contributors and image partners in disputes with Getty Images relating to the licensing of Rights Managed imagery. Nelson & McCulloch thus offers APA and our membership invaluable experience and expertise in addressing this particular issue.

Please send your concerns and individual situation comments on this subject to Nelson & McCulluch. They will use them to compile and frame dialog with Getty and for other stock issues in the future.

Dan Nelson – dnelson@nelsonmcculloch.com
Kevin McCulloch – kmcculloch@nelsonmcculloch.com

APA – NATIONAL
PO Box 725146 Atlanta, GA 31139
Phone: (800) 272-6264 ext. 12 e execdirector@apanational.com

My Dear Friend,

When my friend Peter B Kapland sends me a e-mail 3 to 4 times a week underneath his signature he has a quote from Henri Cartier Bresson, “Giving up rights to your photos is like taking skin from your eyeballs.”

Rubber Bands or how I made Gone with the Wind

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on May 2, 2011

Most photographers spend their freshman years developing the basic fundamental skills necessary to make a reasonable photograph. The next sophomore and junior years, they’re developing a style, a presence. They’re honing their skills in composition and lighting. As they move into their master years, I think we found out the difference between something that looks good and something that looks great could be a 3-cent rubber band. At this point, I would love to take credit for coming up with this idea. Sorry, guys, not my idea. If I knew the gentleman or lady that came up with the idea, I would certainly credit them with it. You may know my good friend Lou Long, a great photographer. He spent half of his career in Europe. He is now based in Miami Beach. He showed me a little trick with the rubber band on the fluid head. Manfrotto. And the difference is night and day. Similar to the self-timer versus the manual exposure with a finger, this removes all the sound, huffing and puffing, and gives you an unbelievably smooth pan. So go buy some rubber bands, attach them to your fluid head, and make yourself “Gone with the Wind 2”. It’s all good.

May 1, 2011 Justice a Long Time In Coming

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on May 2, 2011

I lost 3,000 brothers and sisters on Sept 11,2001. One was an extremely close friend the other a friend. I’d like to thank all the men and women in the armed forces, CIA, Special Ops and the Navy Seals that put an end to a mass murderer. When Osama Bin Laden attacked the World Trade Center he literally attacked all people from all countries not just Americans.

1/8000 of a second, What are you, crazy?

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on May 1, 2011

I vaguely remember when the fastest shutter speed in a camera was 1/500 of a second. Electronic flash would sync at a 1/60 of a second, and the press 25 synched at a 1/30 of a second. Then one day, up popped 1/500th of a second, 1/1000, 1/2000, 1/4000, and now 1/8000. If there’s one thing I do pretty well, I’m like the Rock of Gibraltar when hand-holding a camera. In the day, I could hand hold a 500mm at a 1/500 of a second and make a reasonably sharp photograph. So why would you need 1/8000 of a second? On a recent trip to Mexico, I ran into a young man from Romania. He was the photographer for the resort we were staying in. He knew my work and asked me to look at his portfolio, which I did. Much to my pleasant surprise, his work was great. I mean damn great. Invariably, the subject of what camera he used and what lens came up. Not that I care about the brand or the focal length, but I was impressed when he told me he had one camera and one lens. Then I thought about it for a while. Why should that surprise me? I’d been telling my students one camera, one lens, 2 batteries, 2 cards, and kiss (keep it simple stupid.) This young man did it to perfection. He photographed his action sequences at 1/8000 of a second, and they were to die for. So I smiled, took a walk, moved my camera from ISO 200 to ISO 800, put it on 1/8000 of a second, and had a little bit of fun. I was surprised. There is a whole other world of high shutter speeds that I’ve never experienced. So for the next little while, I’d go from 1/8000 of a second to my normal shutter speed, which would be a quarter of a second. I guess I will never be too old to learn a valuable tip from a very young, and very good photographer. Thank you, Gabriel.