Trinity Photography's Blog

Well, it’s been and gone and we loved every minute of it. The Great Big British Portrait Marathon was a wonderful event and we were thrilled to have been a part of it. If you missed it, it was an epic national event raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support. We were open for 26 hours non-stop over the weekend of 11/12 August, aiming to take as many portraits in that time as our memory cards and energy allowed. We managed to photograph 123 different faces (human, canine and feline) and raised a very healthy £520.29 for Macmillan. We met so many lovely people and laughed so much it was quite fantastic. We even had our courtyard occupied overnight by a Polish tourist who hadn’t been able to find a campsite, and so kipped in the back garden! Thank you so much to each and every one of our sittees, we hope you had half as much fun as we did. Here’s to making it even bigger and better next year.

We know, we know - what use is a blog which isn’t updated? In a way there’s a positive reason why we haven’t been able to keep it up to date, which is that we’re very busy. Obviously a big plus. However, we do realise we should make the time to fit it in and write it once a month come rain or shine, hell or high water. So although it’s a little later than planned, here finally here is the most recent update.

Where to begin? The idea was to write about a particular topic but we’ll save that for next time. Instead it’s perhaps a good time to reflect on what we’ve been up to since last we wrote and what we have planned for the future.

Last time around we had a little natter about the fate of the photographic business, the issues surrounding professional photographers now that digital photography is within the grasp of most people and where that leaves us. We still find ourselves doing battle with people over the issue of copyright and the copying of prints, and indeed we had a very interesting MPA meeting just the other evening to talk about these and other issues. Anthony is currently acting chairman of the Wessex branch and it’s certainly an interesting time to be involved. For those who don’t know, the MPA is a trade association for professional working photographers. Membership is only open to those earning a living as a full-time phot, which should therefore guarantee that the person you employ knows what they are doing. Whilst there are plenty of organisations for photographers, not all of them have this strict criteria. The issue for committee members is to ensure that the MPA branches represent their interests, publicise the importance of hiring a pro and fights their corner, all of which Anthony is looking to get stuck into, particularly as these are interesting times in which to work in the photographic industry.

What else? Well, we seem to be getting a lot of short-notice wedding enquiries this year. This is great for us, but is very different to the past few years, when people have booked a year or so in advance. We’re not sure yet whether this is a trend which will continue but it’s making us address the way we market our wedding services and the way we price them. And that can only be a good thing.

Fiona recently attended a networking session on social media - which in part has prompted the writing of this blog; thanks Aaron! - and is hoping to put all of this good information to use. Whilst we are busy and constantly taking new bookings, we want to be busier, and of course we want to maintain our marketing and advertising. Social media is one of the tools we’re trying to capitalise on, so do please like us, follow us and engage with us. Elsewhere events like the Diamond Jubilee (see our Right Royal Puzzle below) and the Olympic Torch making its way to Salisbury are a great way of getting our name and faces in the public eye – and we hope to see you at Hudson’s Field for the Torch’s overnight stay.

And lastly, but by no means least, it’s the summer which means the Dogs Trust Calendar Competition is up and running. This year it’s Wiltshire Waggy Walkers and we want you the owners to get behind the lens and capture your dog having fun out and about in Wiltshire. It costs £10 to enter, with vouchers available from Dogs Trust’s Rehoming Centre and shop, as well as from us here in the studio. For more details please give us a call on 01722 422224 or Jo Blake from Dogs Trust on 01980 629853. As ever, all the money goes to Dogs Trust and the voting will be up to the public on Sunday 5^th August at the Open Day in Newton Tony. The sun is shining (well, it is at the time of writing…) so what are you waiting for? Get out there with your hound and start snapping!

The world of digital is a mixed blessing, as I may well have mentioned before. No longer are photographers limited by the number of exposures on their roll of film. It’s possible to retrieve files which may have accidentally been deleted, and it also provides a great way of making sure you aren’t in danger of missing that shot. The downsides are that people expect to be able to receive their photographs instantly, forgetting that we still have to process the imagery, and the whole confounded issue of copyright.

It’s a funny old world, and you would think that by now people would have got their heads around the copyright issue. Sadly that’s not the case. We all know that taping a film in the cinema is illegal. We’re told that it’s piracy. We know it’s wrong and yet still people will not only film them, other people will buy these pirate copies. The whole case surrounding Napster and music downloads forced the industry to rethink its approach. And so now we come to digital photographs, the ownership and copyright thereof.

Back in the good old days of film a customer would never have dreamed of asking for the negatives from their photoshoot or wedding. They expected to receive a contact sheet and to choose their images from that. It was understood that the negative – and therefore the copyright – stayed with the photographer. They owned that image; you merely purchased a copy of it. For some reason this notion seems to pass people by now the world deals in digital. Just because an image is online and in the public domain it doesn’t mean that it is therefore free to all and sundry to copy for themselves. The photographer still owns the copyright to that image. Yet many’s the time I’ve seen that someone’s facebook profile pic has changed to an image we have taken – they have right-clicked and saved the image without a thought. I don’t mean to imply that these people are maliciously infringing copyright law, and we wouldn’t dream of pursuing them for proper recompense – that would be tantamount to professional suicide in such a small city. Times have changed to such a degree that the whole concept of copyright is now hazy to a large percentage of the population. It is difficult to police and seemingly even more difficult to educate. Just as people often feel that paying for a professional photographer to take their pictures is unnecessary because their phone has got an 8mp camera on it (and the Nikon D3 is only[!] 12.1mp. Fancy that??!) so it follows that pictures of you taken by someone else are obviously yours for the taking. Even if you haven’t paid for that picture… Sigh. We’ve had people at events say to the group of mates around them “it’s all right, we’ll just pay for one and copy it for everyone else.” They don’t seem to understand that there is anything wrong with this, as they say it within our hearing. Once we explain to them that that’s copyright infringement and what that entails they seem to understand and often end up apologising, eventually paying for the number of copies wanted.

This whole fiddly situation is one reason we are now happy to offer digital files to wedding couples. Prior to the days of 5 and 8mp cameras on mobile phones you would have paid for the photographer because otherwise you weren’t going to have any photos at all from the big day. As the sole photographer there the professional could afford to charge less for their time as they knew they would be getting reprint orders. Now at a wedding when we set the group up or pose the couple to take that shot, we’ve got another 12 people around us pointing their cameras in the same direction. Quite often the couple has seen hundreds of pictures from their wedding before the first dance. Reprints are a thing of the past and people now want pictures they can post on their facebook profiles, to other websites and digital photoframes. So be it – times have changed and so therefore must our professional practices. The issue of copyright law still holds true and is more of a challenge today than it ever was. All we can do is trust to people’s integrity and try to point out the errors of their ways. People still understand that a professional photographer earns their living from photography, but they do sometimes need a gentle reminder that those photographs belong to the pro and not them, and yes you will need to pay for them!

It’s time to spoil all the women in your life this March - not only is today International Women’s Day but coming up we also have Mothering Sunday (or Mother’s Day, if you want to go all US on us!). Here at Trinity Photography we think we’ve come up with a rather lovely package to spoil and treat those beautiful and wondrous women in your life.

Be pampered by our makeup artist before turning into a diva in front of the camera for a glorious photoshoot. Then it’s off for a spot of lunch, on us, while we process your images before coming back in to the studio for a viewing, complete with champagne and chocolate. You’ll also receive one mounted 7”x5” print from the sitting, ready to frame. A whole day of fabulous pampering and fun, for only £299!

The small print:

- Shoots must be booked and a deposit of £75 paid by 18th March 2012, but the shoot itself can take place any time before 30th September 2012, subject to availability.

- The balance is due 2 weeks before the date of your sitting.

- The deposit is non-refundable.

- You will be expected to have fun and enjoy yourself! If we fail to meet your expectations another glass of champers is yours.