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Many photographers ask about how to legally couple popular music with their slideshows on their websites.

We have an "ASCAP Experimental License Agreement for Internet Sites & Services" for music on our website. A "Non-interactive" license costs $288 will allow you to use any piece from their repertoire on your website, so long as you're not selling a product with the song itself, or allowing the user to select which piece of music is played. This covers 365,000 "user sessions" (which cannot be more than one hour in length) in a year. Practically applied, this means that our slideshows may be viewed 1,000 times per day on every day of the year. It doesn't matter how many songs you use, unless the total length of the slideshow is more than one hour. (That would be an epic slideshow!)

I called ASCAP to inquire if our specific use, including music with client slideshows on our website, is covered by the license. They told me that it absolutely was.

If you're TYPE-A like I am and want to be legal right now, check out an ASCAP license.

I was reminded yesterday that digital photography is far more reliable than film photography ever was. As you read this post, you may think I am crazy for saying this, but please, keep reading.

I was downloading some images from a wedding off my Lexar CF cards onto my FireLite hard drive yesterday when an odd thing happened. I had just plugged in the third card I was downloading when I noticed that the filenames of the images on this card were identical to the ones on the previous card. This is not possible, as each of our Canon 1D Mark II cameras produces its own unique filename prefix, and the image numbers are sequential.

I became curious about this oddity, and decided to open the files to check them. I was alarmed to be confronted with pink and purple static noise instead of stunning imagery of the outdoor wedding from the previous weekend. On further inspection of the card, I discovered that my file names were, one by one, being replaced with random characters and hieroglyphics.

If you've never had a card go corrupt on you, you should try it sometime; it's quite an adrenaline rush. I mean this sarcastically, of course. The lesson from my experience is this: always double check to make sure your CF card is unmounted properly from the computer before inserting the next card. Here's why...

After some Google research, we surmised that because Photo Mechanic had reported an error copying a non-image file from the card to the computer, it hadn't unmounted the CF card, as it would have if no error had been reported. I removed the CF card, not noticing that it hadn't been unmounted, and inserted the next card. What happened next caused the fireworks. But first some background...

The data on the CF card is organized using a file tree structure, which is summarized in an invisible file called a FAT file. The computer loads the FAT file structure off the CF card, and holds it in cache. When the disk is unmounted, the computer clears the cache file. But when the card is not unmounted, and the computer is presented with a second card with an identical name, it assumes that its cached version of the FAT file is more accurate than the one on the disk (which it recognizes is different) and overwrites the FAT file on the CF card.

This explains why the filenames from the previous disk were showing up on this one. The image data was still intact on the disk, but the FAT file, which acts like a roadmap for the computer to find the files, is completely corrupted. To the naked eye, this seems like a complete disaster, but thanks to a utility called PhotoRescue (available from DataRescue for Mac and that other platform) recovery is as easy as watching a progress bar creep across the screen for 4 hours.

Using the expert settings of PhotoRescue, I told the program to search the card for images while ignoring the FAT file structure. It scanned the card and found 251 images, a good sign, considering that my Canon EOS 5D will get about 250 images on a 4 GB Lexar card. The filenames it presented to me (which were names PhotoRescue generated) ended in .TIF. Because I'm a raw shooter, my filenames end in .CR2. The thumbnails it was presenting to me were static. I suspected the .TIF extension was the source of the problem. I saved one file, changed the extension to .CR2, double-clicked the file, and it opened up, intact, in Photoshop. I followed suit with the remaining files and recovered every image on the card.

I should also note that we've used this process to recover all the images off a CF card that was formatted by mistake as well. If you re-format a card by accident, make sure you don't shoot over the card. The FAT file structure has been deleted, but the images are still on the card, until they are overwritten by new files. Set the card aside until you can run PhotoRescue on the card.

After reading this post, you might ask, "why is digital photography more reliable than film photography?' After switching to Digital in January 2003, we've never lost an image. I remember that in 2002 alone our local pro-lab in Atlanta processed 6 rolls of slide film in color negative chemistry, ruining 216 images. A small mistake with film can ruin the whole batch. A small mistake with digital can be fixed with PhotoRescue, which we've only needed to use twice in the last 3.5 years.

All's well that ends well.

A local restaurant group contacted us recently about buying prints of photographs we had taken on our various trips abroad, so I located a disk of unedited work that I had done while in Berlin last fall on an assignment. As I began looking through these images, I found photographs that were taken on a day dedicated to seeing Berlin. While wandering around the Brandenburg Gate, I discovered the newly-completed Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The site had literally popped up from nowhere, because I had been there not twenty months earlier and the space was a parking lot.

Monuments to remember those who died in the Holocaust, which are all over Germany, always put me into a daze. The magnitude of what they represent is overwhelming to the point that it is difficult to feel anything. My reactions to them are always delayed; they impact me days and weeks later in more powerful ways than the original experience ever did.

I was excited to see this image on the DVD, because I frankly didn't remember making it while I was there. It was like finding money in the pocket of a pair of pants that you haven't worn in months. Yet, moments later, looking more closely at the woman in the photograph, I found myself sitting at my desk staring at it, my hand subconsciously placed over my mouth (just as she did), as I re-experienced the architecture of that monument in Berlin.

What I love about photography is that it can allow a viewer to experience and re-experience a seemingly insignificant and fleeting moment in time. And make it powerful.

Photo District News, the largest trade publication for photographers, awarded LaCour photographer Andrew Niesen's photo, "Black Tie," in its "Reception" Category in the 2006 "Top Knots" competition for wedding photographers.

Additionally, Photo District News contracted LaCour's Mark Adams to design the Flash-based website to showcase the winning images.

We have returned from the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International convention in Las Vegas with great news! LaCour received WPPI's Buzz Award, an award given for a studio's creative and innovative marketing approach. Our entry focused on LaCour Magazine, our mini-magazine we publish twice a year to all our former and current clients, as well as other vendors and wedding industry professionals. This was the first year WPPI has offered the Buzz Award.

Thousands of entries were submitted from all across the world, so needless to say we feel extremely honored to be recognized. The award was sponsored by WPPI and Blossom Publishing.

This year's WPPI was so inspirational for the four of us. Many of the seminars focused on putting your heart and soul into your photography, constantly renewing your passion, and discovering refreshing ideas and approaches to wedding photography. We left feeling very excited about our upcoming weddings!