This week I was craving tacos, not just any taco, but quality tacos like the ones I remember buying back home in California growing up. Those super fresh taqeuria tacos that melt in your mouth and make you want more and more. So while I was in downtown Orlando the other day, I stopped in at one of our favorite Mexican food hole in the wall called GRINGOS LOCOS, located at 20 East Washington Street in between Orange and South Magnolia Avenues. My order, a few “Street Tacos”, formerly known as Loco Tacos, and a Coke in a bottle to wash it all down. These tacos boast tasty marinated chicken, white onions, cilantro, a lime to squeeze on top, all wrapped up in a couple of warm grilled corn tortillas. Add a little hot sauce to the pile and you have pure heaven. While I was there, I got to witness the preparation of a “Drunk Gringo” in a taco bowl. This feast of a meal includes everything in the bowl, yes that right, everything. All meats, or proteins as they call it, and all sides. I bet if this thing was wrapped in a flour tortilla, it would be the monster of all burritos! A cool eating establishment, with an upbeat energetic crew on hand to prepare and serve you a delicious Mexican meal, all right in the heart of downtown!

A huge thanks to Jay, a former groom who’s wedding we shot in Key West, Florida, for meeting me down at his restaurant, allowing me to take some pictures of the place, and stepping in front of the camera for a few as well!

You can also find Gringos Locos on Facebook HERE.

So if you are looking for tasty, fresh, affordable Mexican food, even if its late night, this place is open until 3:00 am on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights/mornings, venture into downtown Orlando and try Gringos Locos, A Mexican Affair. Enjoy!!! [[Show as slideshow]]

The Nielsens Photography & Design is excited to host our first annual Polar Express Fun Fest and Snow Day with Santa on Saturday, December 4, 2010 from 12 to 5 pm at our studio. Come out and get your photograph taken with Santa in the snow, in front of our vintage train engine. While you are there, check out the many Central Florida vendors that will also be in attendance offering their goods and services for your holiday shopping. We can’t wait for Saturday…..See you all there!!!

Stay tuned as we will be releasing some Christmas in July specials at our Oviedo Florida photography studio!

Nielsens Photography Promo from Perfect Sky Productions on Vimeo.

A special thanks to Lisa Konecny & Jesse Rivers of E-Events, Lee Heard of Czes Heard Design, Jay Clark of Brix Restaurant Orlando, Schuyler Osborne of Perfect Sky Productions, Kristin Hubbard of Our DJ Rocks, Abby Liga of The Liga District, Bryan Taylor of Tagas Events and Production Services, Darrin of Orlando Wedding & Party Rentals, Cotton Candy of Once Upon a Time Events, Molly & Jeff Brown of Cinematique Films, BB & J Linens, Coast 2 Coast Party Rentals, Zeus Event Furniture Rentals, Leos Italian Ice, and to all of our friends and neighbors who helped make this an incredible party!!!

So, with that being said……..I bring you our families little journey out to Cape Canaveral for the April 5th, 2010 morning sunrise launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery. Carl Franzen of AOL online penned it best in his article, “NASA called the predawn launch “spectacular,” “picture-perfect” and its “most visually beautiful launch ever,” which accurately summed up the reaction of many observers.” We would have to agree!!!

~John

by Cristy Nielsen & Yolanda Rowe

As parents, we do everything we can to protect our children. We teach them to look both ways before crossing the street and many other ways to be safe. Photographers have the same responsibility to their work. Each photograph is important–not just because they are our livelihood but because they are portraits of special people: our clients. To protect our work and our clients, we watermark every image that appears online. We hope to discourage unethical people who steal from photographers by copying and using images for their purposes without authorization or compensating the copyright owner and subjects.

­For example, let’s say your photographer posts preview images on a social networking site such as Facebook or Myspace.  These photos are intended to show the client a preview of what their session images will look like.  If they are not watermarked they cannot be identified back to the photographer who created the image and they could be stolen by a third party and used without permission.  This has happened on numerous occasions by companies who will use photographs for their marketing campaigns and then photographers or their clients have found their images and photos on the sides of buses, on billboards, etc.  Imagine finding a photo of you or your child on a flyer or website for some random company when you didn’t give permission for it to be used in that way and you will begin to understand why photographers watermark to protect their work.

Federal law is very clear on the copyright of images.  The creator of the image (the photographer) is the owner of those rights.  A client pays the photographer to take those images, but it does not give them ownership (rights) to what is created.  Even if the client purchases a file or print it does not give the client copyright to the image.  They are given a license to do certain things. This is called a Usage License and it is illegal to scan or copy it and use it in any way other than which it was intended: displaying the print itself. Even purchasing prints does not give the client copyright to the image and it is illegal to alter, scan, or copy it and use it in a way other than its intent.  Copyright is held by the image creator for 70 years by law and infringement is punishable by up to $150,000 in fines PER image.

While it may seem like no big deal to make additional copies of an image, or crop out watermarks in web versions of photos, truly it is a big deal.  A photographer works very hard on their images, and this is their livelihood, source of income and how they feed their family.  When you copy and scan or alter watermarks out of images you are taking part of the income that they depend on to stay in business and serve their clients in the first place.  Watermarking is a necessary evil to protect photographers, to protect their work and their job security.  As Yolanda says “Copyright is like your vehicle. You can give someone the keys to drive it (granting permission to a client) but it doesn’t make them the owner of the vehicle.”

For more information on copyright please visit http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright

So please be patient with us, the site will change, the blog will change and start to look and feel different, and the logo will be changed as I have time to work on the various parts of our web presence.  For now, here is the new logo!  We love it and hope you do too!  Check it out, it’s at the top of the page!