My new Flash-based web site is online now! It features many new photos, all presented in a larger format.

To see it, please click the Home link at left (or this site’s logo) and then the link to the Flash site. Or just click here to get right to it.

The new site is designed for visitors with a high-speed internet connection. (Google Analytics indicates that nearly everyone visiting my site has high-speed internet.)

My old HTML site continues to exist and will also be accessible via the home page.

The new site is mostly complete but will continue to be a work-in-progress, with updates and additions from time to time. Thank you for visiting!

I was in Newark yesterday to photograph the ribbon cutting ceremony at the historic Colleoni Apartments, a building that has been refurbished into 29 new one- and two-bedroom apartments.  The restoration is considered a key part of the city’s Lincoln Park district.

This week I had the privilege of photographing Newark’s Mayor Cory Booker giving an inspiring speech at the Make Mine a Million $ Business event at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, New Jersey.

The Friends of Montessori Foundation held its annual benefit auction and dinner last week.  Proceeds from the event support a scholarship fund for children at the wonderful Montessori House in Tenafly, New Jersey. This year’s event was held at the exciting Velocity 17 entertainment center in Maywood, New Jersey, where attendees could enjoy kart racing before the auction.  Those karts can go fast!  And thanks to a skilled auctioneer from Sotheby’s, the live auction items went quickly too.  I was extremely pleased to see that my portrait session sold for $1,400.

Back in 1999, my wife and I took a childbirth class with Debra Pascali-Bonaro. Debra is a wonderful, insightful teacher. Thanks to Debra, we were much better prepared for the births of our children.

I’ve just learned that she’s made a documentary about childbirth and there will be a story about it on ABC-TV’s 20/20 on May 16th. The web site for the documentary is at this link.

I have a new online proofing system! For events after March 1, 2008, client proofs will appear on the new system. It’s hosted on my site and created by PickPic. My previous system is very good (and still working), but I believe this one creates an even better viewing and shopping experience for clients, their families and friends. It will be accessible via the proofs link on my web site. As before, checkout is secured by SSL encryption.

Among the products and services we’ll be adding for online purchase, are beautiful press-printed greeting cards. The cover will feature a photo that clients select from their wedding or portrait session. We’ll offer both folded (shown) and flat versions, and clients can specify text for the inside (or the back for the flat version). Also new: gift certificates and portrait sessions can now be purchased via a public products page that doesn’t require logging in to any specific gallery.

Please get in touch if you have any questions about the new system.

It’s fun to see that Laurin, one of my past wedding clients, is on the reality show “The Wine Makers”. Good luck Laurin! Here’s a page on YouTube with clips from The Wine Makers TV show.

One of my photos of Laurin on the big day, photographed at the historic Prallsville Mill in Stockton, New Jersey:

Many photographers (including myself) post client photos online in password protected proofing galleries. This allows clients to share their photos with family and friends, while keeping them from the eyes of everyone on the internet. Occasionally clients or family members want to post wedding photos on a photo sharing web site. I caution clients against doing so and have added a clause about this in my current contract. One potential problem is that they may find their photos appropriated for use in advertising, without permission or compensation. Another potential problem is that someone may misrepresent the photos as their own.

Two news stories illustrate these potential problems. In 2007, Virgin Mobile launched a bus stop ad campaign using photos uploaded to Flickr.com. Photos posted on Flickr may be subject to a “Creative Commons by Attribution” license. This means that anyone can use them without compensation as long as they credit the author. A photo used by Virgin Mobile depicted 15 year-old Alison Chang at a fund-raising car wash by her church. The photo was taken by the church’s youth counselor who uploaded it to Flickr. Virgin Mobile allegedly used the photo without compensation and without obtaining Alison’s permission. The story is described on Wikipedia at this link.

In another news story, “Photographer finds Flickr pics sold on iStockphoto,” Icelandic photographer Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir found 25 of her photos being sold by another photographer on iStockphoto. Three of the photos were self-portraits!

Earlier this year, a group of wedding photographers launched the Group of 10 web site.  I’m very pleased to be a member of the group.   As the site states, we’re an alliance of independent wedding photographers dedicated to providing exceptional photography.  We each have our own businesses and our own style, and yet we’re quite alike in out dedication to our work.   The web site is a joint effort and represents a new direction in marketing for wedding photography.  We’re very confident in each others work, and we’re glad to back each other up in the unlikely event of an emergency.