Winners and Etsy Losers

Recently I've been demoing some photo editing software, and I thought I would share some of the black and white images I processed using it.  When you process images using all of the wonderful digital tools at our disposal these days, it can be easy to go overboard and fall off the cliff into processing oblivion, something I'm not a big fan of for my own pics.  But I do love a good post processed image for a little extra drama.

Adding things like tonal contrast, sharpening things a bit, and using layer masks on various images can be pretty cool.  I've been having fun with this, and once I settle on a particular program or bundle, I will report back as to which software I love the most.   I can tell you right now that I'm leaning towards OnOne Software , which I used on all of the images in this post.  But with college tuition to pay, my wallet won't allow me to pull the trigger yet.  And because I'm still trying out some other companies...including Nik Software, I will reserve my opinions until a little later.  In the end, my guess is that I will end up with a combination of several different companies because they all bring something different to the table, and because I'm easily bored, variety is good for me! :-)

Speaking of winners and losers, I got an interesting email this past weekend telling me that someone is using my images to sell their wares on Etsy.  The offender, which I won't mention unless she doesn't remove my pictures from her shop, is apparently threatening other sellers not to sell items similar to some lights she has...which she claims to hold a copyright/patent to.  

The irony of the whole thing is that she is using my copyrighted materials (the pic even has my watermark on it) without my permission to depict Ball Mason Jars and glass insulators she's selling.  And come to find out, many of the photos she uses on her page which appear to be representing what she is selling, are not her own.  One is even from an internet company who sells lighting made from glass insulators, and she's using their image of pendant lights to represent her light fixtures!

I've had images misused before, I think all photographers run into that problem.  As a matter of fact, a hotel in Greece has a pic of my pink bicycle in Germany (go figure) on their website.  I've contacted both the hotel, and the above mentioned Etsy owner, but I've heard nothing from either party.  Not surprising really since if you steal stuff to misrepresent what you are selling, be it a lifestyle in Greece, or glass insulator lights on Etsy...well you probably aren't a winner in my book...just sayin!

I'm a pretty laid back person, really I am, but I have contacted Etsy since the owner of the shop ignored my request to remove my picture.  Of course Etsy wants me to jump through "6" hoops of proof that I own the image.  Thanks Etsy...how's about you have the shop owner "prove" that all of the unauthorized pics she's using are her own, and tell her to stop threatening your other legit shop owners about copyright infringement?!

Ok, enough about this nonsense...it's time to announce the winner of my latest Giveaway.

And the winner is Chania!  Congrats Chania...a gift card to Amazon to help you buy some new books will be on it's way shortly!

Thanks to everyone who entered to win!