Steven Leong’s Blog

Mohd. Hatim bin Bahari, not a name that many would have heard of; he is not a renowned celebrity photographer in Malaysia. Why would I write about such a person then?

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?

NO : this article is not about how others should respect the copyrights of photographers and not use our images that we made with our heart and soul without permission.

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.

Its 3rd January 2010 today, most of us are probably still reeling from the fact that we now have to write 2010 for “year” instead of 2009 on forms and refer to dates in 2010 as “in this year” rather than next year.

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. (continue reading…)

Another rather happy day for me… yes, I don’t normally read the In-Tech pull-out of The Star newspaper, the largest English daily newspaper in Malaysia but it was one of those days that I did not have any assignments in the morning nor the previous night, so I got up really early and started flipping through the newspaper page by page and to my suprise, my face and name was on The Star~!

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.