NEW WORK [ coming in january ]

Swiping

Recently, I saw an image of mine being used on a local Boston business blog and their facebook page. I was never contacted regarding usage so I emailed the owner-editor asking them to remove my copyrighted image or call me to discuss usage fees. 

   

The business owner was surprised I didn't want my photograph on her site. She said "People are typically happy to have their images on my site." I did want it on her site, I just wanted to be paid properly for it or at the very least, asked. She also said "Did you see I credited you properly at the end of the post?" There was a credit but the credit was nowhere near the image. It was tiny and lost about a page away from the actual photo. And there was no link. So what the business owner thought was "proper" was not.

   

Now this business makes money. There are advertisements all over their blog and facebook page. She does speaking events. So it's interesting to me that she feels it's okay to swipe photographs and use them to help her business grow while not paying the proper usage for the photographs that are helping her business turn a profit.  

   

How do we protect our copyrighted work? Should professional photographers watermark every image? This image was taken from the actual client's site, it was not swiped from mine. So a watermark would not have worked in this case anyway.

   

And more importantly, how do we educate people? This person clearly thought it was acceptable to swipe an image and use it for her business without permission. To be honest, I probably would have let her use my image for free if she had simply asked first. 

this is just a taste of a new promo [ coming soon ]

 

Love, Otto

Wishing you mischief and joy all year long. Happy Holidays! 
   

Dirty

If the pesticide "Poncho" is killing honeybees so rapidly, what's it doing to us? What's it doing to my two young growing boys? Thank you to the EPA for protecting them. (Yes, yes, that's sarcasm — you're reading it correctly.)
  
And if you don't know what I'm talking about then start with these 2 articles:
Organic Gardening article  
Fast Company article
  
Photo credit: Tom Theobald   

Poor Otto (can you even see the dog?)

[  TWO KIDS Series ]  I'm the mother of two boys! How the heck did that happen and when are their real parents coming to get them?!

My Salad Bar

It's been dancing around 17 degrees in Boston lately as a low and I'm still growing and eating delicious lettuce and arugula. Crazy! This is the first year I've done this and I wish I'd started a few years ago. It's so easy. At night I cover the lettuce and arugula beds with a floating row cover (vegetable quilt). I put it over wire hoops and hold it down with rocks or hooks.    
  
Just make sure you grow frost-tolerant lettuce like this freckled romaine (click here). The majority of my seeds come from Botanical Interests. And Gardeners.com sells great season-extending products at great prices (follow this link). (I think the bottom shot is Red Sails.)
  
Earlier this year: the Pea-Pea Teepee (snap peas from botanical interests)
  

TWO BIRDS Fundraiser: the result

It's a sunny day. I'm driving my son to school. We're singing. I'm drumming on the steering wheel. We stop at a red light and over my shoulder I notice a little boy standing at the bus stop with his mother. He's young, probably about four years old. Looking all handsome in his Boston Red Sox jacket. It's a cool jacket. He's not wearing a hat so I notice his beautiful brown hair. I catch him looking up quickly, searching for the bus, before hiding his face again. His hands lost in his pockets. 

    

As I watch this little boy, I see my son. I don't smile even though it's a beautiful picture — problem is, it's 22 degrees out today. It's January 17th and this little boy is dressed for June 17th. His jacket is not a winter coat. His feet are in sneakers, not winter boots. His head is exposed to the snow falling.         

   
On that corner, in that tiny second, my relationship with Cradles to Crayons sprung. 

   

Cradles to Crayons is an amazing kids organization that helps get coats, clothes and more on kids who desperately need them. We recently raised $1580 for C2C with our first annual Two Birds  fundraiser. $1580 ensures 64 kids will make it through a cold New England winter with the proper coats, boots, clothes, books, toys and more. 64! 

  

What's "TWO BIRDS?"

It's simple—parents want a nice picture of their kids for their holiday card and less-fortunate kids need winter coats and clothes. So parents bid on a timeslot for a professional photoshoot with me and their entire bid gets donated directly to C2C. Two birds, one stone. For more information follow this link.

  

The amazing TEAM:

The fundraiser may have started as a small hope, a small idea, but it certainly didn't end that way. The studio was filled with an incredible team of stylists and assistants—all of them donating their time. The day was beyond perfect—we moved seamlessly from one shoot to the next. Nine shoots in six hours — that's 13 kids and 16 parents. Whew! The energy was real and the mood was spirited and playful. Each person I've listed below is deserving of the word "Amazing!"   

   

The producer: Kate Geskos

The assistants: Henry Hung and Meagan Beauchemin

The hair-makeup stylists: Heidi Wells, Coco Grace + Christine Morse

The wardrobe stylists: Christen Mitchell + Tara Peek 

Kid wrangler: Deborah Duffy

The studio space was donated by: Eric Kulin

The lighting equipment was donated by: John Curtis

The RESULT:

We were also lucky to have amazing families to photograph!! Here are my favorites — one pic from each of the nine shoots from the day. 
  

BeST purchase... bird feeder

(Yes, I'm blogging about a bird feeder. No, I don't care that you think I'm lame.) 
    
I've bought more than my share of birdfeeders—spent hundreds of dollars.(No really, I have, it's embarrassing.) But this is my favorite and it's the least expensive, $20, go figure. I bought it from the Mass. Audubon shop at Drumlin Farm. My one year old loves it — he sits in his highchair, next to the window and eats alongside titmice, house finches and chickadees. (I fill it with safflower seed.)  
   
Follow this link to a similar bird feeder online.
   

To Infinity and Beyond

My 3 year old son has been missing since Halloween. But I've caught glimpses of this guy  flying around my kitchen.