David Bergman — ALL ACCESS — sports, concert, and music photographer

This is too cute to keep to myself.

My five-year-old daughter Amanda lost her first tooth a few weeks ago. It was so loose that it came out while she was eating a banana.

Unfortunately, she didn’t notice it right away and must have swallowed it by accident. Baby teeth are small! She was a bit upset because we were planning on leaving it under her pillow for the tooth fairy.

We went with Plan B: leave a note.

On her own, Amanda wrote a note that any art director would be proud to commission. It’s the perfect “little kid writing” — written in crayon, backward S’s and all.

The tooth fairy apparently accepted her apology and took the note in exchange for a crisp dollar bill.

Last night, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds performed at B.B. Kings in New York City. When I set up my photo pass earlier in the week, I had no idea that there would be a profoundly emotional moment during the show.

Since Babyface is a talented singer, songwriter, and entertainer, I expected to have a great time and was not disappointed. But about halfway through, he sat down on a stool and his crew brought out stands with pages of lyrics and music printed on them. The band was obviously breaking away from the normal set list.

And then he said it. “Let’s take a moment to remember the King of Pop.”

Of course, he was referring to Michael Jackson, who died just two days earlier.

After the applause subsided, Babyface went on to explain how he was moved by Jackson’s music at a young age and had the honor of working with and befriending the man later in life.

He then performed his rendition of an eerily appropriate song, “Gone Too Soon.”

Jackson wrote the tune in honor of Ryan White, a young boy who died of AIDS in the early 90’s. He performed the song at President Clinton’s inaugural ball in 1993.

Babyface covered it with Stevie Wonder during an MTV unplugged session a few years later.

After he sang the last line at B.B. Kings on Saturday night, he held up his microphone and appeared to be overcome with emotion.

There wasn’t a dry eye in the house – including mine.

Michael Jackson certainly was a controversial figure, but he was an icon who will go down in history as one of the greatest entertainers of all time.

Last week, Kerrang Magazine assigned me to photograph Goes Cube for a feature article. Besides being a NYC-based rock/metal band, these three guys are avid bowlers. They actually travel with their own shoes and bowling balls and find lanes to play in each city when they’re on tour.

My assistant James Burger (check out his very cool stop motion video “intro-duck-tion”) and I spent the afternoon trying to throw strikes while making pictures in between frames.

(Nikon D3, 14-24 lens, 1/125 sec, F/4, 1600 ISO. Two SB-900 strobes with shoot-through umbrellas.)

After shooting some action pics, I posed the guys for a quick portrait.

(Nikon D3, 24-70 lens, 1/125 sec, F/4, 1600 ISO. Two SB-900 strobes with shoot-through umbrellas.)

For what it’s worth, I bowled a 106 and finished in third place (out of five). I guess I’ll stick with the photographic type of “frames.”

I try to keep this blog about photography and technique, but if you’re a photographer, writer, painter, or producer of any kind, you need to be aware of some legislation that is kicking around in Washington, DC.

It’s called orphan works and it could have a major impact on your business.

In the United States, every time you press the camera’s shutter you own the copyright to that image (unless you’ve signed a contract in advance stating otherwise). Many people who create intellectual property — including yours truly — make a living by licensing the use of their work to others. I make sure that my clients have all the usage they need, but I usually keep the right to license my photos in the future.

For example, I shot this photo in 2003 of fans celebrating at the Ohio State-Michigan football game for Sports Illustrated.

Since then, the image has been licensed through my agency Corbis numerous times including a lucrative Fossil watch ad.

The copyright to my photographs is my property. It’s up to me to decide if and when I want to license it for commercial or editorial use. There may be times when I don’t want my images used in a particular way. For instance, I don’t allow my celebrity images to be used in tabloid publications. I also can negotiate a license with a client whereby the images from a shoot can’t be licensed by another company in the same industry for a certain amount of time.

Orphan works refers to work where the copyright holder can’t be found. The proposed legislation basically says that if the owner can’t be identified, then the work can be used without penalty. If the copyright owner comes forward later, the infringing party simply has to pay the going rate for the license and can continue to publish the photo.

The orphan works legislation is essentially saying, “Finders, keepers.”

It’s akin to finding a vacant lot and building my house there because I don’t know who owns the property. To stay with the analogy, if the land owner comes forward after I’ve already built the house, I simply have to pay him whatever the going rate would have been on the property. It doesn’t matter if the land wasn’t for sale or if the owner had already promised it to someone else. I would not face any fines or go to jail for stealing the property.

In the real world, if I want land for my house, I have to find property that’s for sale and buy it. The act of licensing photos is the same.

Seems pretty straightforward to me.

Last week during the World Copyright Summit, Sen. Orin Hatch (R-UT) said that he was actively pursuing the passing of orphan works legislation and may re-introduce the bill in the coming weeks. You can read more of his comments on John Harrington’s photo business blog.

Please let your Congressional representatives know that you oppose orphan works legislation.

Whether this bill passes or not, you should do everything possible to make sure that your images can be identified as your own. This includes embedding a copyright notice on the photo (as I did on the image above) and also making sure that your files have metadata stored in them with at least your name and contact information.

These steps aren’t difficult to implement into your workflow and will help to protect your rights for many years to come.

The last time I photographed Green Day in concert, they were playing in front of a sold-out crowd at Giants Stadium (capacity: 80,000).

The band was recently in New York City to promote their new album 21st Century Breakdown and I shot a live show for Kerrang magazine.

This gig was at Webster Hall (capacity: 1,400) and Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tré Cool had the same energy I remember from the stadium show. Here are a few of my images.

(Nikon D3, 24-70 lens, 1/250 sec, F/4.0 ISO 1600)

(Nikon D3, 70-200 lens, 1/200 sec, F/2.8 ISO 2500)

(Nikon D3, 24-70 lens, 1/250 sec, F/2.8 ISO 2500)

As a music fan, one of my favorite things to buy at a concert is the tour book. It usually features a collection of cool photos of the band on stage and behind the scenes.

However, due to the time and expense it normally takes to produce a photo book, the images are usually from old tours or the rehearsals leading up to the show that I saw.

That’s all changed now.

Thanks to print-on-demand technology and Blurb.com, I just produced a 40-page photo book from jam rocker Pat McGee’s first annual “Rockin’ the Outer Banks” concerts in Nags Head, NC. The weekend featured two shows, an intimate brunch gig with Stephen Kellogg, a VIP golf tournament, and a couple of very late nights/early mornings out on the beach.

(Nikon D3, 14-24, 1/200, F/11, 400 ISO, gelled SB-800 strobe at camera right)

I shot nearly 2,000 images, toned the best photos, designed the book, and made it available for purchase online at TourPhotographer.com within 24 hours.

(Nikon D3, 24-70, 1/250, F/2.8, 2500 ISO, two SB-800 strobes in the crowd w/red and blue gels, one SB-900 on camera dialed down two stops for fill)

Imagine that. Instead of getting the same tour book that’s available in every city, now you’ll be able to buy a book of photos from the show you just attended. And you might even be in one of the shots.