August 2007 Archives

I purchased some photographs of Cisco from an agility trial he ran in. I hate doing it but, since you're running with your dogs, it's kind of hard to take pictures of them yourself. They arrived today and I'm a bit disappointed. Not only is there significant pixelation around Cisco's feathers, but the photographer's logo is on them (nothing about this is mentioned on the website), a sticker appears on the back of them stating copyright all rights reserved, and there is a sticker on the packaging stating they're copyrighted, and any unauthorized reproduction of these photos is punishable under the copyright laws of the US. Ok, I get it.

I have in the past posted photos of Cisco and Berkley I've purchased from trial photographers on this blog. Sorry, readers you'll have to find me in person to see these. I've also been able to buy the digital images from other agility photographers (yes, there actually are people who specialize in this area of photography). I've given these photographers credit when I post pics from them. I did e-mail this photographer a while back and ask if I could purchase digital images (I have this idea of creating a digital photo book of their agility careers once they retire), I never got a response back.

I understand the right of photographers to copyright their work. I understand that they need to make a living.

By paying for the image, I would like the ability to do the following:

• Display the image in my home -- either frame on in a photo album, sans logo or other watermark.
• Show off my dogs on my blog or personal website giving credit to the photographer (hey free advertising for them!)
• The ability to use the photos for my own personal use -- like the photobook I talked about earlier.

I wouldn't expect to be able to without prior approval from the photographer:

• Duplicate and distribute for commercial or promotional use
• Allow to be published in a magazine or other publication
• Sell copies of or any work derived from said photo
• Used in part of a design (either print or web based)

So for anyone that's still reading, I know the line between the sides is a bit blurred, but what are your thoughts? What should the expecations of the photographer be and what are fair expecations of those that purchase the image?

This past weekend was TAG's August trial at the Dulles Sportsplex in Sterling. It was a long weekend that started Friday night with set-up. We couldn't get into one of the rings until 10:45 for set-up which meant we didn't get done until 11:30 or so. I got home shortly after midnight and crashed.

Saturday was an early morning with the alarm going off about 5:30. Cisco and I headed out early that morning and didn't get back until close to midnight again. TAG had around 1100 runs on Saturday between the two rings with the last dog running around 9pm. Cisco was supposed to run in 5 classes, but I pulled him from his last run. He didn't qualify in any of his runs, but I can't complain. He was clean in steeplechase, but over time. I still need to figure out what makes him pokey at times. Cisco did get a massage towards the end of the day. Kim didn't find any soreness or tenderness and she said he has killer hamstrings.

We were back at it 6am Sunday. Sunday's standard run started out slow with Cisco barely getting on the dog walk and blowing off the teeter. After that things picked up. We qualified in advanced gamblers our first time out. And completed our last leg towards on starters jumpers title with probably our faster run of the weekend. I also had my first taste of running a border collie in agility when I got to run a very sweet girl Jossie. Turns out my run with Jossie got her a very pretty green ribbon (her Agility Dog title). Yay! Jossie! We finished clean up about 8pm Sunday night. It was a long, but rewarding weekend. But I'm so glad I don't have to work another trial until May.

This was the first show we used MAD agility equipment for. Major props to Jen and Mark for their hardwork and help this weekend. They were a pleasure to work with.

Saturday was spent with a bunch of the coolest geeks in the DC area (and a few from out of town too). Jason Garber, Justin Thorpe, and Jackson Wilkinson along with others put on one awesome event this weekend. Congratulations to them for a job well done.

BarCamp as I've mentioned before is an unconference. If you ever have a chance to participate in one, take it. Here is hopefully a brief re-cap of the fantastic event.

My day started running into my co-worker Kevin and his son Max at the metro station. Max was by far the youngest attendee, but I have no doubt he'll be running the show in a few years. Max was really excited about spending the day with his dad and attending BarCamp. He, like a lot of us, can't wait for the next one.

The conference started out with people signing up to talk or hold discussions about a topic and then all the participants went through indicating which topics they'd be most interested in attending. The sessions were held in three rooms that varied greatly in size so this helped put topics in rooms that best fit with the interest level.

I started the day attending Kevin's Intro to Rails talk. I followed that with a discussion led by Samantha Warren on User Interface design. This session wasn't what I was expecting, but was pleasantly surprised by the engaging conversation on what exactly user interface design means. This is part of the beauty of unconferences, since everyone participates you're never sure what you're going to get. Usually, the conversation is very enlightening even if not what was planned or expected.

Next I went to a session on Web Typography that was run by Nathan Herald. This is a topic I'd like to see addressed more frequently as typography is a large part of web design (as Nathan says, it's 95% of web design), and I find good typography on the web to be challenging. I finished up the morning attending a session on Portable Identity — a topic that is becoming more and more valuable as people are required to or want to sign up for more and more sites on the web.

Photo by Jason Garber

Next up was lunch, sponsored by the AOL Developer Network. Mike had the opportunity to address the attendees during lunch about all the cool things AOL is doing these days. I even managed to speak somewhat coherently (I think) about CircaVie when called upon. And I didn't even turn red — a huge accomplishment considering my fear of public speaking (I really need to get over that).

The afternoon flew by. I started the afternoon in Productivity Tips, but ditched Bill and landed in the mobile web session. I had seen Jackson speak on the mobile web previously at Refresh DC and enjoyed the presentation and discussion in this session. Next up was a very informative session on Google Analytics. Anyone go to that session and not implement it on a site if you weren't already using it?

I finished up the afternoon with The Future of Television — there is a whole world of video content beyond that box sitting in your living room (I think I need to watch more tv, or less), the Facebook Platform, and an open rails session run by Bill and Joe.

Next came the after party at Cafe Asia where I spent a few hours hanging out with some current and former co-workers and a few other cool people.

There a lots of really cool, smart, creative people in the dc web community and without them, BarCamp would not have been nearly as cool. Overall this was an awesome experience and I can't wait to do it again! My only regret is there were some sessions I didn't have the opportunity to attend and I didn't talk to as many people as I should have. Thanks to Fleishman-Hillard for providing the space, Justin, Jason, Jackson and the rest of the organizers, the sponsors, and the participants for making this event great.

Saturday was spent at the rockin' BarCamp DC. Kudos to all the organizers, sponsors, presenters, and attendees -- it would not have been the same without you. I'll do another post with a full write up hopefully sometime this week.

Sunday was spent at the Potomac Valley Golden Retriever Club's golden only trial. (I backed out of Saturday after much debate when I found out the date for BarCamp DC had moved.) Cisco had a beautiful first part of his standard run and then had issues with the weaves (it always seems to be one thing or another with our standard runs). He made up for it in his second run of the day getting his 2nd Excellent A Jumpers with Weaves run!

BarCamp DC logo

BarCamp is coming to DC! I'm going to hang out with some of the area's web and other new media professionals for BarCampDC.

BarCamp is an un-conference. (And no, I'm not going to be learning how to mix the latest drinks and practicing my flair skills.) An un-conference is a conference with no scheduled speakers, panels, or topics. At the start of the conference, the attendees propose topics they either want to present on, or even just hold a casual discussion on. From there a schedule is made and off you go.