So the old school way to watermark out images as photographers was to actually put an opaque symbol of copyright across our sample images online –never a fan. The draw back is that it totally detracted from the presentation, and with Photoshop, the very tool many of us hold in high regard gives a patient & malicious photo user the power to remove it. A new (within the last few years) generation of watermark is upon us. The company is called Digimarc (http://bit.ly/Ez8V2) their service watermarks any form of media digitally. Basically, your copyright info is welded to your creation no matter what digital form it gets put through in the world. To boost, the company also offers a service that will crawl the web looking for places your copy written image, music, video appears authorized or not. So the questions I ponder, is it worth the cost? Not in the annual subscription (it’s not gonna break the bank basic starts @ $49 yr.), moreover the amount of $$ time it adds to the workflow. When you find your file being used maliciously in China how do receive compensation for that? How much of your work month should be spent chasing down your images so you can invoice non lic. users? I believe in my images and value them strongly, I’ve seen my images get stolen and it burns. Do I watermark them with these questions? The answer is I DON’T KNOW. Perhaps not. Perhaps it is the Cost of Damaged Goods. I would rather spend my time making better photos and finding the “right” clients, than chasing digital phantoms. Maybe when I sell some fine art for a cool $2 mill my mind will change! Create a technology that crawls the web, finds unauthorized use, & implodes the photos and you have a subscriber!

I just completed a three-day shoot near Freeport, CA. This facility is a drinking water intake on the Sacramento River for East Bay Municipal Utility District, Sacramento County, and the Freeport Water Authority. The thought process that went into this structure is incredible. It not only looks awesome from the outside – but the technical inside is clean and the main interior light comes mostly from natural light illuminating all the controls. The days of the shoot I was lucky - as I had varying light conditions overcast to direct sun making for great variations in atmosphere and light intensities. To see more photos click here http://bit.ly/cXYI8t