April was a great month for my photo a day challenge and there were two really big highs that I want to share. First I entered 15 of the images from the series so far into The Łódź Fotofestiwal Portfolio Review. This is an opportunity for me to meet with photographers/editors and for them to critique my work as well as a little bit of networking. I was quite apprehensive about entering but sat down with my wife and culled 6 months of photos down to a cohesive 15. After a bit of waiting I finally got the email to say that I had been got a place in the review. I now have a week before I and the other participants get to choose who critiques our work, eek.
This month I also got a few messages from Lego saying that they liked my work and they wanted to use them on their sites. That is cool and I was pretty hyped, until I read the Terms and Conditions. It seems as though Lego wanted a Royalty Free License to do whatever they wanted with the photos and could not guarantee giving me credit whenever a picture is used.
After I sent them an email and they still kept request uses for other pictures, I went to twitter asking them to respond to my email and they continued requesting images, I Finally screen grabbed their message and got an email back. They said that the initiative was to publish pictures to inspire others.
I responded generally saying that is a great initiative but the terms and conditions don’t represent this and it feels more like a crowd sourcing of images and ideas for them to keep for future use.
There final reply was they would pass on my concerns to the team. I have not let them use my images of yet, but I do feel great that they wanted to use 5 of my images in this initiative.
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- Late
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- Early
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- Fly
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- Attack
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- Health
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- Home
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- Happy Hour
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- Kids At Work
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- Enviroment
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- Spring
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- Blue Again
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- Wall
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- Music
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- Out For Lunch
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- Tech
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- Taxed
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- Yellow
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- Volunteer
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- Tv
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- Square
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- Friday I am In Love With
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- Study
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- In The Draw
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- Name
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- Alphabet
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- Bunny
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- Drinks
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- Red
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- Decisions
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- Fool
All were photographed with a Canon G10 using a combination of on camera flash, natural light and lamps. 90% of editing took place in Lightroom, if Photoshop was used it was usually for combining exposures.
If you wish to follow the daily posts of this self imposed challenge you can on Instagram and you can see previous months here.
Let me know your thoughts of April’s pictures in the comment box below.
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If you wish to get notifications when I post on my blog, you can follow me on Twitter@apertureF64, on Facebook.com/aperturesixtyfour or alternatively be emailed by subscribing below. All images are the Copyright of Benjamin Rowe , ALL RIGHTS Reserved unless credited to another photographer. For more information please read my Copyright Statement
Aperture64 
I always love your Lego photos. They make me think and smile. I am not surprised that Lego would like to use them but I am surprised by their attitude. Good for you holding to your position.
Hi Laura, I thought it was great that Lego liked them but there attitude is similar to a lot of big companies on social media who want cheap pictures. Sometimes you do have to stand your ground I hope my emails filter through amd they get back in touch with me.
I am glad you like the shots and thanks for commenting.
Oh God, all of them around their little “fire” in ‘Late’. That’s adorable. Also, pretty great that Lego likes your work. It’d be wonderful if they would work something out with you, but at least it’s flattering all the same.
Hi Noma, you do have to look on the positives and it is great that Lego liked them. Something I can brag about. The late picture was taken quite late and got it posted to instagram with two minutes to go.
I am glad you like the pictures and thanks for taking the time to comment.
I totally love your images and hope the Lego is smart enough to credit/pay you to use them. As a Lego and Photography fan, I am thoroughly entertained by your creative images.
Thank you Lisa, I never really excepted money but credit for a small promotion would have been enough. I hope that they change there minds about their approach to licenses as it feels rather 2010 not 2014.
They should easily be able to give you credit and I am certain they will come around. Your creations totally represent what (I think) they are all about!
I agree Lisa it should be easy for them to give me credit but there terms and conditions says they can’t guarantee this. I also agree that my pictures do represent what Lego is all about. We I’ll just have to watch this space.
As so many others pointed out, Ben, your photos are awesome and so much fun. You’ve touched on a really serious issue with the controversy with Lego, i.e. intellectual property rights. It’s astounding to me that they think it’s ok to ask for complete rights without even giving you attribution. On the positive side, at least they didn’t simply steal your images and use them–there are a number of such horror stories on the internet.
Hi Mike, it is good that they didn’t just steal then as that would have been a huge horror story. They were offering that they might give attribution but can’t guarantee it. I have heard that many big corporations try to trawl using these licenses esp news orginizations when they run competitions. I think this is a space all photographs should be watching out for.
Hi Ben, huge congrats on the review – very exciting! ..and Lego too. Its nice to be asked and acknowledged by the asking. Do whats right for you.
I love the lego images – they make me smile and they are such fun to create.
Wow, congrats about the portfolio and Lego’s request!!! Well done that you’ve read all into their terms and require more respect to your work from them.
I dot usually read the T&C’s when it comes to software, but for social media you have to keep your eyes open.
I admire that! I’m always too lazy to do so and don’t want to know what else I’ve done wrong so far…^^