FotoGirl

Its amazing how time flies by! I just finished my first year at a large Swedish university and studying two classes this summer. Spent all weekend watching the royal wedding between Swedens Crown Princess Victoria and her commoner turned prince/duke/knight Daniel Westling. It reminded me so much of Princess Diana and Prince Charles’s wedding back in the 80′s.

After the wedding was done I spent my time doing homework and watching the first season of True Blood. Im quite impressed over it actually. Thought it was just hype. Tonight new series called The Gate is in tap lets see if its lame or not, seen the trailer and seems to be a bit of Desperate Housewives mixed with True Blood plus throw in a bit of Eureka and maybe a dash of Dexter and Lost. ABC is out to sweep the tv world

Wow! Um i think it was yesterday it was november? Suddenly here it is the middle of March and the snow is melting off the Swedish landscape! Spring is upon us! My first year of university life here in Sweden only has 12 weeks left then its summer break! Only if it were warm now would it make that thought of summer fun even better. Oh well soon enough. Now back to my studies!

Ok since the rumor mills are running at warp factor 1500 I thought its time to set the record straight.

Myth #1 “HyBrid Foto sues everyone”

Fact #1: At the preesnt time we arent actually suing anyone. We however are taking legal steps and retained Swedens top attorney in regards to protecting the photographers rights Staffan Teste (www.bildombudsmannen.se) against a model who has take our photos and used them in such a way that it became a copyright infringement issue. We will not mention this persons name but only to say that in the past 9 months this person along with a few of her friends have harrased, stalked and even assulted us (we have over 10 different police reports with witnesses to all events) and further police investigation is pending. Yes if you steal or use our photos without permission most likely you will receive a letter or email from us first then if necessary we do send out invoices (in accordance with Swedens copyright law) and extreme measures yes we do send it on further to our attorney. We do alot of work for very little money its only right that we try to protect what we do.

Myth # 2 “Hybrid Foto doesnt pay its Swedish taxes”

Fact #2: Oh yes we do pay our taxes and can be confirmed with the tax services here in Sweden. We have a studio in the middle of centrum that at any given time Skatteverket can come to us and say “lets see your books”. What idiot would not pay taxes in this situation. We are a fully registered company (enskilda firma).

Myth #3 “Mats at HyBrid Foto has made over 1 million SEK in the past 6 months and not reported it”

Fact #3 First off – read fact # 2 once more. Secondly – If the owner had made over 1 million SEK in 6 months do you really think that we would be living in a SMALL 2 bedroom apartment or would have a much more expensive location for our studio?

Myth #4 “HyBrid Foto is copying the works of a so called famous “Dark Arts Alt model”

Fact #4 A model is somewhat like a vase in a photo, just a prop. Sometimes they are quite lovely other times it takes a great deal of work to make them lovely. The work done with said model is the work of HyBrid Foto who owns without a doubt copyright to these works. The ideas and settings were a colaboration between said model and photographer. According to Swedish copyright law the photographer has the right to allow or disallow the use of the photos as well as the model can say “no I dont want you to display my the photos you took of me.” If both parties do not agree to use the photos in such a way that both benifit from it neither party may use the photos. HyBrid Foto on its own will stopped using the photos of said model on March 12 2009 and requested that all photos said model was sending out cease and disist being used. This is where MYTH #1 comes into play. Since according to the copyright law one cannot copyright or trademark an idea I have the right and freedom to re-shoot the photos that I did with said model with new more inviting models. And thats what Im doing.

Im sure there are many other myths floating out there but I really dont care. If you read somewhere or “someone” sends you a email about HyBrid Foto, instead of passing the gossip around why not ask us or look at the facts and see for yourself. Its time for the masses to grow up and act like the 40yr old person they are and take responsiblity for their mistakes.

Nu har skola börjat rejalt!  Min första uppgifter denna termin var att designa en kulturtavlor som marknadsföra MKFC   Jag använt en filter igenom Photoshop att göra bild att ser ute som pussel. Patriz min bästa kompis var modell till detta projekt och jag tänkt att hon var väldig duktig att visa människor som är stressig och orölig över sin framtid men hinner inte så mycket annat grejor pga jobb, familj osv. 

Jag också tror att detta beskrivas MFKC’s motto – “Designing your dreams/future” att man måste ibland satta ihop livets pusselbiter

Detta uppgift var ocskå en tävling och finns pris och kanske kommer att visas över hela Stockholms stan!  Vi för se

Yet another summer has passed by and I have started school again.  I enjoy MKFC out of Stockholm as it allows me the freedom to study when I’m not working.  This term is a contiuation of DTP called Visual kommunication. 

Speaking of working….OMG are we growing and BUSY!  We moved into our own studio in April and things have exploded and recently we purchased a new large format printer (new to us -refurbished to the rest of the world)  and I got a new Nikon D700. With this purchase I moved up in the world of Nikon professionals to the NPS level! 

School is great!  our first assignment is to design a “kulturtavlor” for a contest.  The winner’s design will be displayed all over Stockholm as 70×100 placards places on city streetlamps!  I have a really cool idea and Patrica (my bestis friend) is going to be my model for it.  Will blend photography with photoshop to hopefully come out with a great design that just might be a contender!

So for now its off to bed with my schoolbooks, our boys and my beloved cartoons!

/ami

New printer for our business HP Designjet 5500PS

AMAZING quailty prints – UV inks!