Fort Defiance Senior {Shenandoah Valley Photographer}

A great senior session just before the holiday with Leah from Fort Defiance High School. It was a perfect afternoon for a session and there was just enough color left on some of the trees for some beautiful backdrops. Enjoy your sneak peek...

A Thanksgiving Blessing |Newborn Photography Waynesboro, Virginia

This adorable baby girl joined her family just in time for Thanksgiving. Her mom and dad brought her to see my when she was only 6 days old. You will see from this sneak peek how beautiful she is and how very alert she was! We only convinced her to sleep for a short time before she was awake again watching everything. I have to say she is truly one of the calmest, most mellow babies I have every photographed :-)

Fall Family Portraits | Waynesboro Virginia Photographer

Beautiful Fall colors + adorable boys + my camera =

priceless family portraits

Friends for life....

"A cousin is a ready-made friend for life."

This friendly "touch" football game got quite animated when my boys got together with their cousins on Halloween weekend. These guys have a wonderful way of just picking up where ever they left off during their last visit. They laugh, tease and play until they are exhausted. It is fun to watch :-) Cousins are truly a wonderful gift!

When we got to the park, the little guys started off playing alone... the big guys were too cool to join at this point.

Then the big boys decided to get involved. The tempo picked up quickly and the competition started to heat up. Jay tried to keep any one from getting damaged, but you will see from the pictures that the "no tackling" safe guards were quickly dismissed by all players...

This was suppose to be blocking??

It's always a good game when you can walk away with a smile :-)

The Boys of Fall| Children's photographer

Well, it is almost the end of this year's football season and it has been an exciting one! I can't say that football is my favorite sport...actually I am truly a basketball fanatic at heart, but it is fun to watch these little guys run around the field. I understand some parents being concerned about little boys playing tackle football and the possible dangers involved. We have taken all the safety precautions we can and have attended every practice & game to be sure they are being coached well. I admit to cringing sometimes when I hear those pads crunching during a tackle, but boy do these guys love it. For all our family & friends who don't live close enough to sit beside us in the stands and bake under the sun while enjoying a Saturday morning game, I am posting some pictures of both boys from this season.

Pierre, our 8 yr old Haitian Sensation, played his first season for the Fort Defiance Midget team. He has anxiously waited his turn as he watched Ethan play the last two years. Those of us who know Pierre well had a small inkling that this boy was made for this sport...we were right. Those enormous hands and feet are proving to be very handy. This isn't just a game to Pierre. When he puts on his pads, it is business time. I've never seen him listen so intently as he does at practice. You will see from the pictures that his helmet is almost as big as he is and I think he probably carries almost half his body weight in pads when he suits up yet still he manages to swagger out onto the field. It took him a few weeks of practice and about two games to get the idea of how this game works. Never one to shy away from a tussle, he loves to tackle and doesn't mind in the least being tackled. He is happy to play any position and is always anxious to get into the fray. With his enthusiasm, intensity and speed, it didn't take long for him to get noticed by his coaches. At this point, they can often be seen at practices just shaking their heads and grinning as Pierre outruns and jukes his way to the end zone. Picture trying to catch a hummingbird....that is how Pierre runs through traffic and zips around. Last night, even two coaches jumped on the defensive side and tried to catch him by surprise...no such luck :-) Altogether, this first experience has been good for Pierre. It has given him an acceptable outlet for his normally high level of energy and he has lots of little friends who he enjoys spending time with off the field. He has always been a hard worker and incredibly persistent when he is determined to succeed at something, but football has shown him that when you do work hard at something you want, you can sometimes get the reward you were hoping for...during the game last weekend, he played with the first string offense (mostly older boys)....and scored three touchdowns...granted two were called back, but not because he didn't manage to speed past all the defenders and into the end zone. Pierre didn't mind and was happy to take the ball on the next snap and try to do it all over again!

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This is Ethan's third year playing for the Indians and he has had a good season. I definitely think Ethan's skills have improved each year. His Junior team hasn't had a great record, but I think there are a number of reasons for that. I think they have lots of talent, but maybe just haven't figured out how to get it all working together as a unit. Ethan plays running back, free safety and is his team's punter and kicker. As he played quarterback in the past, they also sometimes use him when they want to throw a long pass as he has a pretty good arm. Ethan has scored the majority of his team's touchdowns and has had numerous interceptions this season but he is always very quiet and humble about that fact. He doesn't like attention or limelight and gets uncomfortable when others try to compliment him on his play. He encourages his teammates and even if they lose, he will be smiling soon after the game. Football isn't his favorite game (I am thrilled to say basketball is!), but I think he will stick with it for a while yet. In fact, after practice last night, he was asking a varsity running back when he would be able to start working out in the high school weight room. You should have seen the smile on his face when Ernesto told him this time next year :-)

and now....on to basketball season....YAY!

What's Up with the Big Mark?

I often get asked this question and thought that others who are reading my blog might be wondering about this as well. I found this article on a professional photography website and thought I would share :-)

Why Are Professional Photographs Watermarked?
by Cristy Nielsen & Yolanda Rowe

As parents, we do everything we can to protect our children. We teach them to look both ways before crossing the street and many other ways to be safe. Photographers have the same responsibility to their work. Each photograph is important–not just because they are our livelihood but because they are portraits of special people: our clients. To protect our work and our clients, we watermark every image that appears online. We hope to discourage unethical people who steal from photographers by copying and using images for their purposes without authorization or compensating the copyright owner and subjects.

For example, let’s say your photographer posts preview images on a social networking site such as Facebook or Myspace. These photos are intended to show the client a preview of what their session images will look like. If they are not watermarked they cannot be identified back to the photographer who created the image and they could be stolen by a third party and used without permission. This has happened on numerous occasions by companies who will use photographs for their marketing campaigns and then photographers or their clients have found their images and photos on the sides of buses, on billboards, etc. Imagine finding a photo of you or your child on a flyer or website for some random company when you didn’t give permission for it to be used in that way and you will begin to understand why photographers watermark to protect their work.

Federal law is very clear on the copyright of images. The creator of the image (the photographer) is the owner of those rights. A client pays the photographer to take those images, but it does not give them ownership (rights) to what is created. Even if the client purchases a file or print it does not give the client copyright to the image. They are given a license to do certain things. This is called a Usage License and it is illegal to scan or copy it and use it in any way other than which it was intended: displaying the print itself. Even purchasing prints does not give the client copyright to the image and it is illegal to alter, scan, or copy it and use it in a way other than its intent. Copyright is held by the image creator for 70 years by law and infringement is punishable by up to $150,000 in fines PER image.

While it may seem like no big deal to make additional copies of an image, or crop out watermarks in web versions of photos, truly it is a big deal. A photographer works very hard on their images, and this is their livelihood, source of income and how they feed their family. When you copy and scan images you are taking part of the income that they depend on to stay in business and serve their clients in the first place. Watermarking is a necessary evil to protect photographers, to protect their work and their job security. As Yolanda says “Copyright is like your vehicle. You can give someone the keys to drive it (granting permission to a client) but it doesn’t make them the owner of the vehicle.”

For more information on copyright, please visit Federal Copyright.

So, as you can see that is why we photographers copyright our images. It isn’t because we are mean or don’t like you. It’s because we run a business and a part of our business is making sure that our clients are protected and that we are still in business in the coming years to photograph your family as they grow.

Caleb | Fort Defiance Senior Portraits

Seriously Ladies, who can resist a good looking guy in a suit?? Caleb, you did a great job with your portrait session. I hope you enjoy your sneak peek!

I love this image! Hope those numbers have washed off at some point in the last few weeks...