All will be explained later on this post but first, some background.

Mr. Hatim is the father of one of my friends, though I have heard of him through my friend, I have not had the privilege of meeting him until yesterday morning. He was a professional photographer for 19-years and in his prime, he was struck down by stroke. It was completely unexpected and caught the family by surprise, my friend, the only son in the family had to suddenly bear the burden of supporting the entire family as well as to take care of his now bed-ridden father.

Eventhough Mr. Hatim has been a photographer for so many years and his quality of work certainly deserves to be exhibited, his work has never been exhibited before anywhere and in any form.

And with his current condition, someone finally decides to host an exhibition of his work under various banners, names and sponsors… a politician even came to officiate the exhibition for him.

Though the photo exhibition can be said to be a kind and positive act by a caring society or even a good government but can’t it be also considered bitter irony when we celebrate Mr. Hatim’s work only when he can’t even get up to greet us?

I and many others would surely prefer to be able to shake his hand and had a good long chat about his life as a photographer and how he sees the world in general… but this is a bit late, isn’t it?

YES : this article is about how some photographers, specifically wedding photographers seem to just ignore or are ignorant about the fact that they are infringing on someone else’s copyright.

How would wedding photographers infringe on someone else’s copyright and misuse their intellectual property, you ask? The answer is simple, slideshows or more specifically, the background music on slideshows and on websites.

This practice is so widespread (when this post was written) in Malaysian Wedding Photographers that it can be considered appalling. Just perform a search on the ‘net for works of Malaysian Wedding Photographers and you can find such infringements in one form or another on their websites or their blogs.

If anyone is in doubt that using copyrighted music this way is really against the law, please check HERE for a pretty comprehensive explanation. Paying particular attention to the section regarding the 1997 amendment to the Copyright Act of 1987.

If Malaysian law doesn’t apply to you, I am sure Google will be of help to find if its legal in your country to use copyrighted music without permission.

I think most would agree with me that music is an integral of the photo slideshows experience as well as used in most photographer’s websites…

Music is a tool to bring about the right “image” or “mood” for the viewers to our websites and our slideshows… both which ultimately attract clients to us and is part of our image or even advertising.

It is easier (and cheaper) to just rip the music off some CD or download an MP3 with the coolest or latest tunes; place them on websites or slideshows. In fact, these familiar tunes who belong to famous artistes would even provide more “empathy” of the viewers to our work and is more likely to make them desire our services.

Easy as it may seem, using copyrighted music (which practically covers every song you have ever heard on radio or on tv or in the movies) without permission on a website is an act of piracy and can be considered “stealing” from the record company, the artistes, the composers and everyone who had anything to do with the production of the music.

Some justify piracy by saying, “It will be too expensive for me to license a song just for my personal website”… some might justify it be saying, “Everyone else is doing it, why not me?” or “The copyright owners won’t even notice it, let alone sue me over it.”.

If one considers oneself as a professional photographer and values one’s integrity; none of those excuses should be used or accepted.

Remember the outcry when a photographer discovers his/her work was used without permission in some billboard or publication? Remember when the photographer was screaming, “He stole my work!”?

Imagine that when you decide to use copyrighted music without permission again; only this time imagine the musician saying that you stole his/her work instead.

I didn’t get far before I nearly fell down when I jumped up from my chair… there it was, my photo staring me in the face. Haha… another one of those happy moments, I guess…

Suddenly reminded of my recent assignments, I went through the May 2010 issue of the Malaysian Golf Digest… this time, I was laughing like a madman. 4 photos from 2 articles this time…. hahaha….

I guess a photographer can never get bored seeing his work actually published and is seen by many hundreds, if not thousands of people.

For links to more photos from the golf tournaments so far as well as my other work, please check My Facebook Page out.

Time for a celebration? You bet~!

Here are some of my favorites.

It is said that in life, you’d be lucky to meet a SINGLE true friend who truly made your life change for the better; I am lucky to have met more than one; and she who had made 2009 so special to me is perhaps the most important to date.

Well… 2009 wasn’t all good, again, I bear witness to actions beyond my imagination when they feel that they are threatened… I too bore witness to the amazing feats of the Kuala Lumpur 2009 5th Asian Para Games performed by people who we would not even expect to be able to walk besides us on the sidewalk.

Last but not least, a special thanks goes to everyone that has worked with me in 2009 especially Norman Hiu, Kenny Gregory, Ronald Shanker, Habeebah Sideeka, Jason Lee, Dr. Chen WS, Edward Chan, Peter Lim, Allan Ow, Mae Foo, Kris Wong, Eric Chan, Eric Chih, Malini and many others.

Now… enough talk and on to my favorite photos of 2009.

It has been quite some time since I have last written anything because I was moved or touched but today is rather unusual if not special.

Last night, a friend commented, “Photography is no fun at all, because you always have to bring along so many things then go out early in the morning and come back at midnight” (quote modified from typical IM-style English) and not so long ago, I found a suitable reply for my friend’s comment in some stories I read.

These are stories that we (as photographers) never want to read about or hear but sadly (or fortunately, depends on how you look at it) we tend to be involved in them.

The following was posted on the forum :

“I photographed a wedding last month in Philadelphia. it was small,
only about 20 people, in a hotel.

When the family showed up, the Father was sick with what everyone
thought was the Flu. He was probably about 55 yrs old.

He was my only contact for the wedding (as I had gotten the gig
through another photographer and the details were hard to come
by)

He didn’t respond to my emails in the last weeks, so I emailed the
wedding coordinator for the hotel, and was sad to learn that the
father had passed away the day after the wedding.

I now have what may be the last pictures of this girls father.” – jprezant

j…

“this is so true… I recently shot a family session for a single mom in our church – mother of 3 adult kids.. all in early 20′s. The Boys were twins and 1 younger daughter.

3 weeks after I shot the family photos – one of the twin boys was killed in a car accident near his home in south carolina.

the mom has been showing off the photos to everyone and anyone and so proud of her boy and my work of shooting those photos just weeks before his death. While I wasn’t at the funeral – mutual friends have told me that she publicly thanked me for taking the photos of her son – and how she’ll cherish those photos forever!

it really hits home…. what we do is important for sure.” – travis

And there are many more HERE.

Reading these stories really reminded me about how important photography can be. I am not going to go on about how “holy” or “noble” photographers are in “preserving memories for eternity” or anything similar but I have to say, when we perform a service for our customer especially wedding photographers, perform it with utmost care and respect for our photos one day may actually mean the world to another person.

Think that “It’s ok” to have just one more photo that clients won’t complain about but it isn’t up to the standard; STOP thinking like that~!

Always perform above all expectations and do your absolute best all the time. That is how we should operate all the time.

Going back to those stories… it also drives home a point that life is short again… one moment your loved ones may seem to always around you and the next, you might not be even be able hear their voices ever again.

Do remember to love and cherish everyone in your life.

Now… on with the photos.

Featured along side Mr. Ng Kok Leong, the photo editor of The Star, a 25-yr veteran photographer, it was a real honored to be mentioned in the same breath as Mr. Ng and of course, to be standing on the same stage with him.

As Mr. Ng said, “It is nice always nice to be recognized for your work.”; I was beginning to think that I am destined have my work unrecognized and unnoticed, receiving this recognition will be a real driving force for me to achieve more and work even harder.

Now… its time to process more photos.

We met and she became a friend and not just a client.

I guess this is actually quite common for wedding photographers, many of our clients eventually become our friends as most would have met their wedding photographers months if not a year or more in advance; from the 1st meeting to the actual wedding, we would meet and talk so much that sometimes I even think of things in my sleep that I would like to tell some of my clients. Having seen and being part of so many weddings, there are many things I can advice my clients to do or not to do.