It’s prom season! And it’s senior picture season for those seniors who didn’t get their photos done earlier in the year. Speaking of seniors…

Senior pictures in the spring sounds like a great idea, but all of the romanticizing and analogies aside, fall really is a better season for senior pictures for a few reasons… 1. The weather is better in the fall.  2. People are typically more tan and fit in fall than they are in spring after the holiday season and cold weather.  3.. You’ll have more time to share your photos with family and friends before graduation.

So, it’s too late for the class of 2012 to go back and do fall senior portraits, but there’s still time for the underclassmen to make plans to get their photos done while they look their best. =) Of course, that’s just my opinion. We still photograph lots of beautiful seniors in the spring, but I really do feel like the fall seniors have a little extra edge over them.

Okay, back to my original reason for writing…

One of the prom sponsors over at Bethany Public Schools contacted us last week to ask permission to use one of our photos of the Devon Boathouse for their prom posters. Kudos to her for thinking ahead and not risking a copyright violation by just using the photo without permission. Thank you, Amy!

I actually know an Oklahoma photographer who makes a comfortable living by invoicing people for using his photos without permission. It’s a steep fine, and a premium invoice — and it’s definitely not how we’d like to run our own business — but he has ever right to pursue those usage fees and damages. If they refuse to pay, their liability is up to $100,000 per image, and the judge will rule in the photographer’s favor every time.

Thankfully, we really haven’t had to deal with that yet. I suppose it’s a matter of time, but we do limit that by having our logo placed on each image we blog on our website.

In the case of the Bethany High School prom, we were happy to provide the image of the Devon Boathouse for them to use for free. I’d have loved to get a couple of hundred dollars from them to pay for that totally outrageous traffic ticket that Bethany police officer gave me for traveling too slow through an empty intersection (trying to read the street signs at night), but they didn’t have a budget for it, and we’re just nice like that. Plus, now we’re sponsors of the prom. So, as an official Bethany High School prom sponsor, please behave, kids. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. Actually, that might give them too much license. =)

Here’s the photo they will be using on the posters and publicity for the prom. We created this photograph at a wedding in the Spring of 2011.

And as a sponsor, we get mentioned in a sponsor slide-show. I threw this together… a collage of a few of my favorite senior photos from the last few years. I went with portrait-oriented images so we could fit a few of them on the screen, vs. just one big landscape-oriented image.

Now, to get taxes finished up before the Spring photo rush hits. Aw, who am I kidding… taxes are never finished!