Schmap Schmapple

Sometimes Free of Charge is not the same as Not for Profit.

I was approached my Schmap this week with a request to use one of my images on Flickr, for free, with the promise of some form of reciprocal links.

The premise of their offer is that they provide the city guides and maps for free to the end user, and aren't they a nice bunch of guys who are providing a useful service for free to the end user. So therefore they shouldn't have to pay you for the use of your image, because hey, it's a free guide isn't it?

I thought about this, and my answer has got to be a resounding NO. For the reason that despite what they claim, they are not providing the resource for free. What they are providing is advertising disguised as a city guide and for this they are being paid large amounts of money.

So while the end user of the maps may not be paying for your image, Schmap are getting paid hansomly by the advertising companies. So why should someone else profit from my images and I get nothing in return. It doesn't make sense to me.

I think that the part I objected to most was the way that Schmap were not clear and open that they were going to profit from your image, while you get nothing.

Now, note that this is very different from Not for Profit. If an charity or NGO approached me asking to use one of my images on Flickr to promote a cause that I agreed with, or as part of an information pack, then that is a very different proposition where the only people profiting are those that the charity is trying to help.

And if it is exposure that you are looking for, seeing your picture up on the web, being appreciated and helping others, then there is always Wikipedia. Get out there, sign up with a user ID and submit your image, for free and not for profit.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CaltonHillDugaldMonument.jpg

The west coast did not dissapoint

After a night on the west coast layby camping in the car while storms raged around and lightning flashed overhead I got an early start in the hope of Castle Stalked being lit by the rising sun, looking for the snowy islands as a backdrop.

Nope, nothing to be had. I ended up with a couple of shots, that look OK when grainy and starkly B+W but nothing like I had in mind. Dissapointed I had more coffee and started the drive down the coast only to stop off at the mouth of Loch Creran to be rewarded with foreground, some water in the middle and then snowy mountain in the background. Dodging the sideways rain showers I was rewarded with a visit from a curous seal playing in the tidal rip and the picture below.


Loch Creran - Again a HDR image, still using ND Grads to ballance the dynamic range and the HDR path to get a little extra 'pop' in the textures.

HDR Vertorama Drama

On my way back down from the Fort William Mountain Film festival I went on a bit of a detour which ended up taking in Castle Stalker and Loch Creran near to Oban and then across to Schiehallion via the Crannog on Loch Tay. So yeah quite a detour.

I had planned to stay on the west coast and explore the shoreline, hoping to get some pics of the sea with snow capped island hills in the background, but the weather wasn't playing ball with snow showers blowing through and extended periods of poor visibility. All the weather reports said head east, so I heeded them and ended up getting some wonderfull evening light beside Schiehallion.

Schiehallion could mean a couple of things, either 'Fairy Mountain' or 'Continuous Cloud' thankfully it was more fairylike and less cloudlike when I was there. For the fact fans it is almost exactly on the midpoint of the Scottish Mainland, east/west and north/south. It was also used to estimate the weight of the world by measuring how much a pendulum was displaced by it's gravity.

Anyway I digress, the clouds cleared and I was presented with two very different light levels in the top and bottom of the image, I would normally attempt to correct this using graduated filters and bracketing the exposures, this time I skipped on the grad and took 2 sets of bracketed images at +1 1/3, 0, -1 1/3. With one set centered around the exposure for the sky and snow, and one set for the foreground.

Each set of bracketed images were blended using Photomatix and tonemapped into a 16 bit image. The two tonemapped images where then stitched together using the amazing panoramic feature in Photoshop to create one blended, tonemapped and stitched image in the vertorama format. The final image was subject to the usual colour correction, contrast tweaks and general photoshop work before the end result was released to the world. A long process, but one that I think is work it.

HDR Vertorama Drama

The reeds in the foreground proved to much to resist and I finished up the long weekend in my wellies in the mud trying not to get stuck while I took the shot below. The sun was setting, it was dead still and I could hear an eagle calling high above. All in all not a bad place to be on a Monday....


This one a more traditional version with ND Grads to compensate for the sky.

Avalanche dodging in the back corries

"How about the Snowgoose car park at 7am tomorrow? Now that it's getting lighter we don't have to make an early start"

That was the call on friday night from an old uni friend Dave MacLeod. I'm glad I didn't have to find out what an early start would have been. Dave is a well known figure in the climbing world, continually pushing the boundary of what is technically possible and is considered by many to be the best all round climber in the UK, having just completed the UK's hardest traditional climbing route graded E11 and F8c+ as well as putting up the UK's hardest winter moutaineering route, hardest boulder problem, hardest sport route, the list goes on... Have a look here for more information on what he is up to.

I'm glad to say that I wasn't going to be climbing anything that day, Dave and Malc were keen for some winter climbing and I was going to join them for the walk in and take some pics. Dave had the keys for the access roads, so we were able to cut out some of the walk in and take the cars up.

The temp had risen considerably through the night and the avalanche risk was a solid category 4. After taking stock at the hut, the plan was to stay far away from the gullies and follow Tower ridge up to a mixed route beside Echo wall and see what it looked like. This should keep us away from the path of any avalanche should the cornices collapse and on more stable snow/rock areas.

The wind and rain that had started when we were at the hut continued to deteriorate and I only had short windows to take pics of the walk in before the lens got a soaking. Dave and Malc had managed to colour co-ordinate without any prompting from me and the look that I was going for was of the two climbers looking dwarfed by the expanse of white surrounding them.


picking the least avalanche prone route....

As we rounded into the gully the going got a lot harder, wading through waist deep heavy wet snow. A quick block test to look at the snow pack showed a very obvious shear plane about a foot down into the wet snow, not an ideal place to be. Dave and Malc geared up and we headed to the relative safety of the rock. The rain had changed to driving snow at this point and was creating and excellent build up of rime ice to add texture and detail to the rock, however the temp was still rising and the ice that Dave and Malc had planned to climb was continuing to rot and melt.

I followed up as far as I felt I could go without increasing the danger levels past a point I was comfortable with and got a couple of shots as they started up into the climbing proper.



Knowing that I wasn't going to get any more I turned and headed down as quickly as possible. The rain was torrential by this time so I kept the camera in the relative dry of my bag and stomped back to the car wondering how Dave and Malc were getting on.

I got out of the wet gear and tried to start the drying off of the camera kit while I had a bite to eat. It wasn't long before I had a knock on the window and saw a very wet, but happy Dave and Malc looking for a lift back down the hill. The route had turned out to be in very poor condition and the snow had quickly turned to rain so they had made the call to head back about 10 mins after I did.

Fort William Mountain Film Festival

I'm doing the rounds of the mountain film festivals this year, first a special mention from Colin Prior at the Kendal Mountain Film Festival, then two 3rd places at the Fort William Mountain film Festival last weekend.

Kirkjufell is proving to be a popular mountain, with this pic getting a 3rd place in the Landscape Photo Section.


An old one but a good un, taken at Stanage got 3 place in the Mountain adventure category.


Dave Cuthbertson of Cubby Images was on had to give out the prizes, Cubby is a long serving mountain and outdoor photographer, as well as being an acomplished mountaineer and mountain guide. For more info about Cubby have a look here.

The rest of the night was spent catching up with people and watching some amazing kayaking videos at the paddling evening of the film festival.

Active Earth evening

I was recently put in touch with the people at Active Earth and last week I found myself helping out at a night they put on in Edinburgh. Active Earth run training workshops and facilitate experiences that give everyone from high powered executives to students and young people the chance to re-establish a connection with the natural world.

The overall goal of this project is both to benefit the person and also to benefit the environment. If a person feels a direct connection with the natural world, if they appreciate and value our natural resources, they are more likely to want to protect it and strive to live in a more sustainable fashion. This is a shift away from the traditional environmental lobby approach which tends to create a feeling of guilt and focuses on what we have to give up, instead this aims to give people a greater understanding of what they have to gain by protecting the environment.

As a landscape and nature photographer I was invited along to talk at one of their events in Edinburgh and help facilitate a discussion group. I printed off a range of landscape images and these were distributed about the tables as props to help the flow of discussions about nature. It was a very enjoyable evening, with lots of interesting people and plenty of lively interesting chat. Head over to their website to find out more about them, they are planning another evening in Edinburgh soon and it should be very interesting to go back to.

New Zealand pics

All in all a great trip to a very photographic country, I've put a selection of some of my favorites below. I've been busy getting prints together for a photo exhibition in Edinburgh and I've been getting involved with an organisation called Active Earth to provide images as discussion points on our relationship with nature, so updates here have been a bit thin on the ground, but there will be more to come.


Rain Shower passing through the Abel Tasman sea


Standard NZ Nelson Lakes shot number 24.


Tennyson Inlet deep in the Marlborough Sounds


Champagne Pool at Wai-o-tapu thermal wonderland, NZ standard shot number 12.


Statue on the wellington sea front.


Walking on the Coramandel Peninsula


And finally swimming with dolphins, a truly unique and very cool experience.