The Great Photo Dilemma

So I'm pretty much broke. The end of Senior year has been wildly expensive, and that combined with MIT bills and various other expenditures has left my wallet pretty tightly accounted for, that being said I couldn't afford to drop a hundred or so dollars on graduation photos, so I said to myself "Well heck Chris, you've got photoshop, you know what you're doing, make some yourself!" So that's exactly what I intended to do. This is the picture I took:

Washed out, poor contrast, and very obviously my bathroom.

But, through the magic of Photoshop, (and some long hours of internet radio and tablet drawing) here's what I came up with:

better.

So then I went to Walgreens to go have prints made. This is where things get interesting. I pulled up the picture to have them printed and the guy says "Oh we can't print that, it's copyrighted material, you'll have to go back to the studio", at first I'm a bit flattered by this man's unintentional compliment, and I tell him that I did in fact take these pictures myself, at home.

"No you didn't"

I think he's just in disbelief, once again I assure him they are mine.

"Hold on one second"

*I wait. A woman clutching a clipboard and paperwork comes and greets me*

"Sir, you'll have to take this copyright release back to the photographer so that we can make prints for you"

This isn't fun anymore

"I'm the photographer, these are my pictures, I took myself."

"Sir, please, just take these forms to the photographer and we'll be able to help you"

"I took these pictures, I hold the copyrights, do you want me to fill them out myself?!"

"Sir if you took these pictures at home, how did you get it to say 'Class of '08' at the bottom?"

"I own a copy of Photoshop. Just like any photography studio does. I have all the equipment I needed to make a good picture, I'm just trying to save some money. In fact, I can prove these are my pictures."

*I pull up the original photos I didn't use*

"...."

"Well I guess we won't be needing these forms, thank you for choosing walgreens for your picture needs!"


In the end though, it cost me $12 to have 100 prints made, whereas a similar package would have cost in excess of $250 from a local photographer.

Frugality Prevails!