WEEK 11 FINAL EXAM FORCED CHOICE

WEEK 11 FINAL EXAM FORCED CHOICE

 

1. Zach Reininger – very good, a few typos and minor errors but probably the best in the class

2. Amer Khwaja – I thought I did pretty good

3. Christopher Sua – did not color the quotes so they were harder to find but at least the questions were clear and there were no missing sections

4. Alicia Booth – couldn’t find a lawyer . Pretty good post though with lots of info. At least tried to do the assignment without a lawyer

5. Kylie Cameron – doesn’t list the questions, only 14 quotes, confusing without knowing the questions

6. Joy McGivern – not labeled properly, missing sections like Legal Authority and the questions. I counted only 18 quotes.

7. Lisa Munns – missing blogs, quotes do not flow in a narrative, missing questions

8. Briana Stephens – missing a section, doesn’t list the questions,

9. Andrea Carrillo – couldn’t find a lawyer. Didn’t do all the sections.

10. Bryan Ramirez – no final

11. Jonathan Thomas Allen – no final blog

12. Rom Alon – no final blog

13. Ericka McBee-Marquez – no final blog

 

 

 

 

 

FINAL PROJECT: Your Own Argument and Opinions

 YOUR OWN ARGUMENT AND OPINIONS

(Note: AQ designates my lawyer, Aminah Qureshi, quotes from her are in red)

      It seems on some rules, the law is clear, on others, the law is more open to interpretation, hence the need for lawyers. One of the basic issues I posed was, should I register all my photographs? "Copyright is an automatic right and does not require you, the photographer to file special paperwork. Registration, however, is required to enforce the rights of the photographer. When a photo is not registered with the US Copyright Office prior to an infringement (or within three months of the first publication of the photo), a copyright owner may recover only “actual damages” for the infringement (pursuant to 17 U.S.C. 504 (b)), instead of statutory damages." – (AQ)

So from this I conclude that it is probably a good idea for me to register my photographs, to get the full benefits of copyright protection.

People do not have the right to copy your photographs, even if you sell them prints because "As the creator of art, the copyright owner has the exclusive rights to the art for purposes such as reproduction." – (AQ)

However, they are allowed to use them for a fair use: "Fair Use is a legal exception to the exclusive rights an owner has for his or her copyrighted work. The purpose of the Fair Use Doctrine is to allow for limited and reasonable use as long as the use does not interfere with the owners’ rights or impede their right to do the work as they wish." – (AQ)

"Reasonableness is a subjective standard. Therefore, if you as the photographer believe there has been an infringement of your rights, via your photograph, your photograph must: 1) have been registered in order to enforce your rights and 2) if/when litigation is brought it will be up to the discretion of a judge or jury to determine whether owner’s rights are impeded." – (AQ)

Another issue that came up was the issue of when you do and don’t need model releases. "Following industry standards, for any work that is will appear in consumer or trade magazines, newspapers, or educational books, you generally do not need a model release. This is also true of photographic exhibits. These are considered educational/informational uses. However, for photos that will be used in commercial applications – ads, brochures, posters, greeting cards, catalogs, poster cards, kiosks, trade shows, web sites, etc. you will need a release from your subject in order to be “legal.” "— (AQ)

It would seem that just to be on the safe side, it would be best to get model releases wherever possible for any pictures of people so that you can sell the photograph in the future.

"You don’t need a release for pictures of public property, such as government buildings (although you may run into problems just from photographing them, for security reasons)." – (AQ)

"For images of private property you are safer if you get a release." – (AQ)

For pictures of trademarked items, you are probably ok because "the use of trademarked items is only prohibited if it would confuse someone as to the origin or authenticity of a product." – (AQ).

             I learned a lot from this project and I can see the need to be aware of the laws and have a lawyer or know how to get one in case of any legal issues.

FINAL PROJECT: Rule of Law

 A lot of the questions involved the process of copyrighting pictures and what needs to be done to make sure that the copyright is valid so that if someone infringes on it, you can successfully sue them in court.

(for purposes of this document, book refers to Patent, Copyright & Trademark, 12^th edition, Richard Stim, Nolo. Berkeley 2010)

(Items in gray are quotes from the book)

"Photographic images are protectable under copyright law whether in print or in digital format." (book p 312)

"Under the Copyright Act of 1976, an original work of authorship gains copyright protection the instant it becomes fixed in a tangible form. This means that such protection is available for both published and unpublished works."      (book p 234)

"A work is ‘created’ when it is fixed in a copy for the first time; where a work is prepared over a period of time, the portion of it that has been fixed at any particular time constitutes the work as of that time, and where the work has been prepared in different versions, each version constitutes a separate work". (book p 243)

If the subject is a person, you may need you may need a release from them:

"…a person who is the subject of a photograph may be able to prevent its reproduction under legal theories such as the right of publicity, defamation, or invasion of privacy." (book p 312)

If the subject is a public building "that is that is ordinarily visible to the public, photos or pictures of the building can be taken." (book p 213)

However buildings on private property generally require releases:

"Photographs of an architectural work created after 1990 cannot be reproduced without the consent of the owner of the copyright in the architectural work – usually the architect or the developer." (book p 213)

Pictures of trademarked items are usually allowed because

"Free speech laws permit the use of another company’s trademark for purposes of commentary or criticism.’ (book p 438)

If you chose to incorporate a part of someone else’s work into your image, then you must obtain their permission, unless your use is considered fair use:

"fair use—that is the work may infringe, but the infringement is excused because the work is being used for a transformative purpose such as research, scholarship, criticism, or journalism." (book p 201).

"Providing the author’s name will not, by itself, excuse someone from a charge of infringement, or qualify the use as fair use." (book p 215)

Once you have created your image and you have the proper permissions for it, if necessary, then you may chose to register it.

"Registration occurs when the Copyright Office receives all of the required application materials associated with an author’s clam and approves the application." (book p 322)

"Registration is recommended because it provides several advantages in case of infringement: Copyright owners must register their work prior to suing for infringement. For a published work, timely registration must occur within three months of first publication or before the infringement begins. For unpublished works, registration is timely as long as it occurs before the infringement begins." (book p 322).

"An original work of authorship is only considered published under the Copyright Act when it is first made available to the public on an unrestricted basis." (book p 320)

"Although the Copyright Office does not take an official position on the issue, it is generally considered that unrestricted Internet displays amount to publication. In 2002, a federal court ruled that the posting of a website to the internet amounted to publication."(book p 320)

 "It is more difficult for an infringer to claim fair use when the infringed work is unpublished because the infringing publication deprives its copyright owner of the right to determine its publication date." (book p 321)

"A valid copyright notice on a published work can prevent the claim of innocent infringement from being raised." (book p 321)

"Innocent infringement – when an author honestly believes, based on the circumstances, that a work is not protected by copyright – does not excuse infringement. It is however, a mitigating factor when determining the remedies for infringement". (book p 284)

Once registered, an image is protected by copyright laws in the US and in other countries as "Copyright protection rules are fairly similar worldwide, due to several international copyright treaties, the most important of which is the Berne Convention. Under this treaty, all member countries must afford copyright protection to authors who are nationals of any member country." (book p 202)

Also any variations of that picture are also protected unless they are different enough to be considered derivative work, even then they have some protections:

"A derivative work is a work that is based on one or more preexisting works. A work consisting of editorial revisions, annotations or other types of modifications which as a whole represent an original work of authorship is a derivative work." (book p 250)

So if you have your image and someone violates your copyright, then

     "In the event someone infringes the exclusive rights of a copyright owner, the owner is entitled to sue in federal court and ask the court to issue orders to prevent further violations, award money damages if appropriate, and in some circumstances, award attorney fees." (book p 200)

If it is used without your permission on a website then it falls under the DMCA:

     "The DMCA is often used by copyright claimants seeking to have an ISP remove infringing works under its ‘notice and takedown’ procedures." (book p 252)

      "Violations of the DMCA can result in civil remedies consisting of injunctive relief, actual damages, and statutory damages." (book p 253)

FINAL PROJECT: Reasoning of the Law

The lawyer goes about the legal issues in a very logical and methodical way. The lawyer first determines what type of law is involved, in this case for example, copyright law. Next the lawyer defines of all the relevant legal concepts involved, like for example, the definition of copyright. This is followed by the general legal concepts involved., like timeliness of copyright registration.  After that the lawyer cites laws that specifically pertain to the case at hand and any relevant cases to establish legal precedents wherever possible. Finally the lawyer reaches a conclusion, knowing full well that the ultimate interpretation will be left to a judge but that the research done will let them argue the case if it comes to that.

FINAL PROJECT: The Questions

THE QUESTIONS:

1. What do I do if someone copies my images off my website and uses  them on their website or facebook page without my permission?
2. In photography, when do you need a model release?
3. In photography, when do you need a property release?
4. The domain name of my website expired and someone in Russia bought the domain name. They then took the text of my website, but not the photographs, and put it on their website of the that name, is that legal?
5. In that example, what is the legal remedy? I contacted the ISP and they said I needed a court order for them to take down my copyrighted material. Is that correct?
6. Since I never ‘registered’ the material on the website, would that mean its too late to claim copyright infringement in that case?
7. Say you are making a picture and you download someone else’s picture off the internet to use as the sky for your picture, for example, is this a violation of copyright law?
8. For registration purposes, is a low resolution copy of a picture considered to be the same picture as the high resolution original or are these considered to be two separate works of art? Does every change to a picture that is saved effectively create a separate picture?
9. Are you permitted to take photographs of trademarked items without the consent of the company that who owns that trademark. Like for example, a photo of a coke bottle?
10. If I sell someone a print of my photograph, do they have a right to make a copy of it? Does the picture have to be registered in order to be protected?

These questions are of interest to me because they directly affect my ability to take and use photographs, which will be my livelihood as a photographer when I graduate. The specific concepts involved are, copyright, copyright registration, timeliness of copyright, model releases, property releases, published works, unpublished works, derivative works, and trademarks.

FINAL PROJECT: Legal Authority

After contacting several lawyers to see if they were available, I chose my cousin, Aminah Qureshi. She is very qualified because she just graduated at the top 10% of her class from the University of Virginia law school, where she was the executive editor of the University of Virginia Law Review. She is currently studying for the bar exam which she will take in February. She said that if she had problems with any of the questions that she could ask her teacher who is an intellectual property lawyer, but she said she didn’t have any problems.

EOC WEEK 10: Lawyer Jokes

http://www.iciclesoftware.com/LawJokes/IcicleLawJokes.html:

During the mid-1980s dairy farmers decided there was too much cheap milk at the supermarket. So the government bought and slaughtered 1.6 million cows. How come the government never does anything like this with lawyers? -- P.J. O'Rourke

Lawyers occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.- Winston Churchill

Q: Why did New Jersey get all the toxic waste and California all the lawyers?
A: New Jersey got to pick first.

http://brainden.com/lawyer-jokes.htm

Q. How many personal injury attorneys does it take to change a light bulb?

            A. How many can you afford?

A. Three - one to turn the bulb, one to shake him off the ladder, and the third to sue the ladder company

Q. How can you tell when a lawyer is lying?
A. His lips are moving.

A new client had just come in to see a famous lawyer.
"Can you tell me how much you charge?", said the client.
"Of course", the lawyer replied, "I charge $200 to answer three questions!"
"Well that's a bit steep, isn't it?"
"Yes it is", said the lawyer, "And what's your third question?"

http://www.ahajokes.com/law001.html

Q: How can you tell if a lawyer is well hung?
A: You can't get a finger between the rope and his neck!

Q: If you are stranded on a desert island with Adolph Hitler, Atilla the Hun, and a lawyer, and you have a gun with only two bullets, what do you do?
A: Shoot the lawyer twice.

http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Humor/Lawyer.htm

Bad Reputation
Isn't it a shame how 99% of the lawyers give the whole profession a bad name.

People Drowning
If a lawyer and an IRS agent were both drowning, and you could only save one of them, would you go to lunch or read the paper?

http://www.workjoke.com/lawyers-jokes.html

A doctor and a lawyer were attending a cocktail party when the doctor was approached by a man who asked advice on how to handle his ulcer. The doctor mumbled some medical advice, then turned to the lawyer and asked, "How do you handle the situation when you are asked for advice during a social function?"

"Just send an account for such advice" replied the lawyer.

On the next morning the doctor arrived at his surgery and issued the ulcer-stricken man a $50 account. That afternoon he received a $100 account from the lawyer.

---

A dog ran into a butcher shop and grabbed a roast off the counter. Fortunately, the butcher recognized the dog as belonging to a neighbor of his. The neighbor happened to be a lawyer.

Incensed at the theft, the butcher called up his neighbor and said, "Hey, if your dog stole a roast from my butcher shop, would you be liable for the cost of the meat?" The lawyer replied, "Of course, how much was the roast?" "$7.98."

A few days later the butcher received a check in the mail for $7.98. Attached to it was an invoice that read: Legal Consultation Service: $150 .

EOC WEEK 9: Letters of permission

I submitted 4 letters of permission for various things that I as a photographer would be likely to shoot and would need a release to do so:

• ·      a child, to be signed by the parent or guardian
• ·      a person of age 18 or older
• ·      an object
• ·      a building

I chose the child, the person, and the building because when submitting images to stock agencies they require such releases and won’t accept images without them. While I was researching them I found some interesting articles warning that it is better to be safe and get the release even if you are not sure you need it. In one case a photographer was offered money for some images he took of the backs of people in Costa Rica. He assumed the release wasn’t necessary but Getty images refused the images without the releases and so he lost out on some money.

The odd one in the list is the object, I chose that because I myself have sometimes shot copyrighted and/or trademarked objects and it would be useful to have such a permission in case I ever wanted to try to sell images of such objects. For example, I shot some Coke bottles once and Coke is a trademarked product.

The moral of the assignment is that it is probably wiser to go through the hassle of getting permission from the appropriate person rather than miss out on some potential revenue or risk getting sued because you used such images without proper permission.

week 8 EOC: Mattel vs Bratz

The court of appeals overturned the verdict against MGA, saying that:

” (1) MGA deserved “sweat equity for making and marketing the dolls” and (2) that Mattel could not lawfully claim a monopoly over dolls.”

Now Mattel is suing again:

Mattel said in a brief filed Feb. 27 with the U.S Court of Appeals that “after two trials and eight years of litigation,” it isn’t contesting the jury’s finding that MGA didn’t infringe Mattel’s copyright when it developed the dolls from an idea and drawings by a former Mattel designer.

The El Segundo, California-based maker of the Barbie doll said it wants the appeals court to throw out the $172.5 million MGA won on its counterclaims that Mattel stole its trade secrets.

I disagree with Mattel’s decision to sue again. As one analyst says:

“At this point, the Bratz brand -- once valued at about $1 billion -- is viewed by industry analysts as far less valuable than when the litigation started.”

If Mattel wins, but Bratz can’t afford to pay them, then what? What is the point? Isn’t Mattel in the business of making toys, not doing lawsuits? Didn’t they prove their point that they will aggressively go after any company that takes their intellectual property or violates their trade secrets? Rather than wasting time and lots of money on lawsuits that, as the previous trials have shown, can be ruled in favor of either side, they should instead ‘stick to the knitting’ and concentrate on their core toy business, lest their competitors see this as an opportunity to strike at those toy business while they are distracted with the lawsuits. Didn’t they remember Novell, (who spent a lot of time and money going after Microsoft), and countless other companies that went bankrupt while pursuing legal actions instead of focusing on their core businesses? Even if you are right, there comes a time when you need to let go and move on, otherwise all this backwards looking will cause you bigger problems in your core business.

WEEK 8 BOC: Progress in finding a lawyer

Before looking for random Las Vegas lawyers for the homework, I decided to start with lawyers I know, of which I know a few. There is Beth Brands, the lady on facebook that I play games with. There is Ward Skinner, who was the in-house lawyer for the worker's compensation insurance company that I used to work for and who also went to USC like I did. There is Ash Naraynan, an old family friend who I haven’t heard from in many years and I am not sure if he remembers me. And finally there is my cousin Amina, who passed law school and is studying for the bar exam. I figure she would know some lawyers if she doesn't quite qualify as a lawyer.

So I started contacting them. By chance, Beth was online on facebook when I contacted her in chat and she immediately agreed to help with my assignment. Beth is a lawyer in Iowa. I will use her for the assignment. As a backup, I sent a linked in request to Ward, but haven’t heard back from him. And I plan to see Amina this weekend to discuss this with her.

WEEK 7 EOC: Finding a lawyer

I decided to try a few lawyers that I know before cold calling random lawyers in the Las Vegas area.

There were 4 that I could think of:

·      Beth, a lawyer friend that I chat with online on facebook,

·      Ward, a lawyer at the insurance company I used to work for. I used to fix his computer as part of my job doing in-house computer support. The drawback is, it has been awhile since I have seen him and I don’t even know if he still works at that company or even if he would remember me.

·      Ash, a family friend. But it has been years since I have heard from him and he was more my brother’s friend than mine.

·      My cousin who is studying for the bar now. She is not a lawyer yet, but I am assuming she would know some lawyers.           

I went online and contacted the first one, Beth. I got very lucky, she happened to be online at the time. I explained my homework to her and she immediately agreed to help. I am not sure what type of lawyer she is but in law school you are required to have a very broad education and know about all types of law so I think she is a good choice.

            I plan to ask her legal questions related to photography. For example I would like to know what are your rights when shooting strangers in public places and when you do and don’t need model releases and property releases. Another question would be if you didn’t register your pictures with the copyright office can you still sue someone for copyright infringement if they use your image without your permission. Also I had a Russian guy steal the text content of my website, when I contacted the ISP to have them take it down, they said they needed a court order and I figured that would cost money so I never pursued it, there could be some legal questions to ask related to this.

WEEK 6 EOC: Illicit

I think the movie was very interesting in how it showed that something that seems like no big deal – buying an imitation handbag, for example, is actually just the tip of an iceberg and supports a huge chain of illegal goods and illegal activities. The crime itself might not seem to be such a big deal, but when you consider the millions in lost revenue by the companies being scammed and the money laundering and other crimes involved to support the illegal activities, then you realize that it really is a big deal, that without the demand on the consumer side for such knock offs, the supply would shrivel up. Plus you see that while buying a purse might not be dangerous, buying pills of unknown quality could put you at risk for serious injury or even death because you have no idea if they are what they say they are or how they are made, and it is all just to save a few bucks. It is not worth it.

            Personally I have never downloaded an illegal song, I buy songs legally on Itunes for a dollar. I see downloading songs illegally as no different from stealing something and I have always discouraged others from copying software when I knew they had the means to buy the software legally. I do admit that when I was younger I did copy a few computer games illegally and that was wrong, but that was a long time ago when I couldn’t afford the software. Now all my software is legal.

            On the other hand as a photographer, I am really annoyed at how nonchalantly people copy images off the internet and never once think about the rights of the artist who made them. Such free images have hurt the market for photography because people see  no reason to pay for something they can get for free.

Week 5 EOC: Patent Trolls

Such validations by the courts of the right to sue and collect money over such trivial things like putting an outdated patent number on a product by people who were not harmed by the products in question only serve to give courts and lawyers a bad name and show how out of touch they are with the values of society. They only serve to reinforce the public’s already low opinion of lawyers and courts.

Allowing a company to be sued for each product with a wrong number will create lots of work for manufacturing companies. They will have to hire people to find out which patents of theirs are expired, take those products off the shelves and then change the molds of all such items. They will need a team of people looking for infringements and dealing with all the lawsuits. Alternately, they would have to settle out of court, which is legalized extortion by these patent trolls. In the long run, most companies will probably stop putting patent numbers on their products altogether to avoid such hassles. This will make their patents harder to enforce and may serve to reduce the value of the patents.

All of this extra work created and money spent is unproductive and could be better spent on things like advertising or research and development. The main beneficiaries are lawyers. No wonder countries like China have such low manufacturing costs – they don’t have to put up with such frivolous regulations.

If a company has the wrong patent number on a product, they should be allowed to change it in future versions within a certain amount of time and only if they fail to do so should those who bring about such lawsuits benefit. Alternately, the courts should rule that the only people allowed to bring about such lawsuits should be those who can prove they personally were harmed by such practices, like if they are competitors to those companies. 

Week 4 EOC: Jeopardy Game

I think the game is a very effective learning tool for many reasons. To start with, creating the questions is difficult and makes you learn about many topics in the reading because you read a lot while trying to find suitable questions. Figuring out which categories to put the questions in and what value to assign the questions is also challenging.

The game itself forces you to think and remember what you read, and the open book format lets you learn while playing the game. Having the game played in teams, rather than as individuals, is a very good idea as it fosters teamwork and rewards those who work together.

The effect of changing the games before they were finished is to give a greater variety of questions of different difficultly levels. It also lessens the impact of bad questions and allows different people to take on the role of game creators. More importantly, it provides a convenient time to change the teams around.

Switching the teams around from game to game lets people meet other people and prevents any one team from dominating the game by redistributing the good players from team to team.

Varying the size of the teams changes the dynamics somewhat because large teams are more likely to come up with the correct answers. On the other hand, having small teams gives more people a chance to participate, even those who don’t participate normally. However, some people rarely participate, even when they are on smaller teams. They choose not to answer the questions and let their teams lose. Whether this is because they didn’t study, they were shy, or they were just apathetic I don’t know.

The system of giving extra credit for the midterm to people who are on winning teams or who participate is a good one because it rewards the good students. Also this being Las Vegas, letting your team gamble with their points in the last game is a nice touch.

Personally I had a lot of fun in the game. It’s a cool way to study. Creating the questions prepared me well for the game. Being a new student in the school and not knowing anyone, it allowed me to meet most of the people in the class. The teams I was on always came in first or second place and our team’s decision to gamble most of our points on the last game, while the other teams played very conservatively, turned out to be the right one. The reward of all those extra credit points means I don’t need to study much for the midterm.

Week 3 EOC: Stolen Valor Act

The Supreme Court struck down the Stolen Valor Act that congress passed in 2006. Under the act, it is a crime to lie about winning US military medals..  The court ruled that the act was unconstitutional because it violated the free speech rights of those making false claims about winning medals.

            The court apparently didn’t want to get involved in the messy business of determining which about which subjects lies are legal and which ones lies are punishable.

“The prospect that Congress might move to outlaw other kinds of statements understandably prompted rights groups, writers, publishers, and news media outlets to urge that the Supreme Court overturn the Valor Act.[… At stake was whether the government could decree that otherwise harmless speech on any subject could be prosecuted. – Philadelphia Inquirer

           

As Reuters says, “The nation well knows that one of the costs of the First Amendment is that it protects the speech we detest as well as the speech we embrace, so while lying about receiving a Medal of Honor may be "contemptible," it is constitutionally protected free speech, as the Stolen Valor Act was struck down.”

Others are not so sure:

According to TIME, “the court held the First Amendment’s right to be vile pond scum protects those who boast falsely of military decorations as well as your normal, garden variety slime. “

Veteran’s groups are dismayed by the ruling. Meanwhile, The defense department announced plans to create a stolen valor website to help people determine if someone is lying about military medals. Lawmakers are trying to pass a revised, narrower version that would make it a misdemeanor for anyone to benefit financially from lying about military service or awards.

I can see how on the one hand this ruling protects speech which has no good purpose, but at the same time I agree that if the act was allowed to stand it would bring about all sorts of questions about what subjects it is ok to lie about and what ones it is not ok. I agree that sometimes people go to far with their lies, but where do you draw the line and who gets to decide where that line is. So I can see that a more narrowly worded law would be better.

Week 2 EOC:
Facts about the Erin Brokovich case, Anderson vs Pacific Gas and Electric:

• both sides agreed to arbitration in order to speed up the process
• because of the arbitration, details of it were kept secret, which angered some of the victims
• the case was settled in 1996 for $333 million in damages
• the plaintiffs attorneys got 40%, $133 million, then billed the clients an extra $10 million for expenses
• Erin Brokovich got $2 million
• 650 residents got part of the settlemen
• the average was $300,000 per victim
• some of the victims were upset about the amounts they received
• the plaintiffs attorneys didn't disburse the settlement money until 6 months after they got it, which is very unusual, no explanation was given for this
• unlike in the movie, once the case got going, the plaintiffs attorneys hired some big law firms to help them win the case

My opinion of the case:

I think the case is very interesting in that it shows how attorneys can help the victims of environmental damage get large settlements, even against very large and well connected companies like PG&E. If parts of the movie are to be believed, it also shows how the presence of a beautiful woman like Erin Brokovich can open doors and get information that would be unobtainable by normal means. This probably wouldn't be possible if our society wasn't so male dominated, with most power in the hands of men.

My opinion of lawyers:

Lawyers are a necessary part of our society. I think quite highly of those lawyers that fight for what I believe in, like environmental and consumer protection. Without them, the big companies would get away with far more things than they do now. On the other hand, some lawyers have a bad reputation in society and I feel it is deserved by the tactics they use and the ethics they have.

Week 1 EOC: Intro

I love traveling. The world we live in is a very beautiful place and the things to see are endless. I love to visit new places and because things are constantly changing, even revisiting old places can be very exciting for me. My curiosity is boundless and I always want to see what is around the next bend and the bends after that. This natural curiousity has led me to many amazing places, primarily national parks in the western United States, but other scenic areas also. I started traveling in my 20s but after some time, I realized that I was having trouble remembering all the places I went to. It is this desire to hold on to these memories that to led to my interest in photography. Originally my images were just these documents of the places I went to but eventually as I learned more and more about photography they became more art than simply documentary photographs. The photographs were meant for my eyes only and would have stayed that way had I not shown some of them to my friends at work, who really liked them and encouraged me to pursue photography. This blog is meant to be about my photography.