Photographer's Rights: Yet Again

I have previously written several posts about photographer's rights in general, as well as occurrences that have happened to me personally. Those posts can be seen here, here, here, and here.

Here is a post from the Photo Attorney blog discussing the TSA statement that people taking pictures of trains can be questioned in certain circumstances. The discussion ends with the suggestion that unless one is trespassing or there is 'reasonable' suspicion of a crime (defining reasonable is always problematic) the 'suspect' need not comply with questioning. Of course, depending on the situation, this might well be difficult!

Very interesting reading! Maybe we all need to get the "I'm a photographer not a terrorist T-shirt".

The Bourne Series

Today, a brief break from photography....hey, I'm allowed to do that.

One of the benefits of having teenage boys with great senses of humor around is that they share with you the things they find funny. Sometimes that can be well....not so funny. But this time, when one of them called me down to watch a YouTube video it was really hilarious. At least I thought so.

To appreciate this you have to be a fan of the Bourne series. You know, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and the Bourne Ultimatum. I loved the films. So don't bother watching this spoof if you haven't seen the films as you will just shrug and wonder what it's all about. But if you have seen them....prepare to laugh.

See here.

Vincent Laforet's Take On The Closure Of PhotoShelter

As readers of this blog may be aware, I recently decided to discontinue my short-lived microstock experiment in favor of submitting to Alamy and PhotoShelter. After the experience, I questioned why anyone would want to sell their images for $0.25 to $1.50 per download. Unfortunately, PhotoShelter, which I was particularly attracted to because of their active and vocal stand against microstock agencies (70% to the photographer and no images allowed that were also being sold on the micros), has shut their doors.

What really concerns me is that this closure has the feel of microstock 'winning'. There really were only two non-micro stock agencies that I know of that were:

Willing to accept new, unproven photographers purely based on image quality
Willing to accept photographers that have 50 images as well as those with 5000
Not Microstock
Offerings not limited to mainly lifestyle shots

Interestingly, when I posted this on the new Stock Imaging Forum, someone responded that the fact that the older, more classic stock agencies had been unwilling to accept photographers based purely on image quality and not on their being established or having thousand of images may have also played a significant role in the current situation and allowed microstock to rise. There was no place else for people to go. Surely that is not the only precipitant, but it probably didn't help matters any.

At any rate, here is Vincent Lafforet's take on the situation at PhotoShelter.

Canon Teaser

I am not one that necessarily gets excited about the release of every new digital camera or piece of equipment. That said, the hoopla surrounding new releases is always fun to watch, and it is always interesting to see what is the 'latest and greatest'.

With that in mind, for those that have not yet seen it, I present the link to Canon USA's 'teaser' for their upcoming new dSLR release. This release has been widely touted as being the replacement for the 5D. No real information here, but it certainly confirms (beyond unsubstantiated rumors) that something new is coming. With increased competition, it would be nice to see a full frame dSLR with the newest processors at a more reasonable price point.

The Twin Jewels Project: Published

I have previously written several posts about my Twin Jewels Project, a personal project photographing McConnell's Mill and Moraine State Parks, both of which are about an hour's drive from my home. I had several periods of uncertainty during the project, but kept pushing forward. I truly appreciate the comments and encouragement that folks on this blog gave me along the way.

I am pleased that the project has led to the publication of an article and photographs in Nature Photographer magazine. So, if you happen to run across the Fall issue at a bookseller....check out "The Twin Jewels of Western Pennsylvania" on pages 82-85.

In some ways, I would like to think of this as the culmination of Stage I of the project. I am wondering if anyone who has had a project of local interest published has been able to then continue showing it. If so, I would certainly appreciate any ideas. I am thinking along the lines of publishing in other local magazines, local slide shows, local nature or conservation groups etc.. If anyone has done these sort of things I would appreciate any tips as to how to get started, make contact etc.....

I had sent in 20 images to be considered along with my article about the history of these parks, knowing that only a few would be chosen for publication. The following images are the ones that the editors chose:

"Color In Motion"
Copyright Howard Grill

Interestingly, the image above, entitled "Color In Motion", is one that I had a good deal of doubts about as I had expressed in this post. To my surprise, the image was chosen as a full page photograph.

"Foggy Morning"
Copyright Howard Grill

I previously posted about "Foggy Morning" here.

"Icy River"
Copyright Howard Grill

I had posted about "Icy River" here.

"Peeking Out"
Copyright Howard Grill

"Peeking Out", an image from my series of posts about trillium.

"Hells Run Falls"
Copyright Howard Grill

This image of Hell's Run Falls was used as the half-page article opener and is one I almost hadn't submitted because I was uncertain about the composition (I didn't like the thin tree behind the falls) and because I thought the shutter speed was actually too slow, causing loss of definition in the thick 'strip' of water in the center of the falls.

Interestingly, some of what I felt were my better images did not get chosen for the article.

Anyway, I am quite pleased that after several years of photographing the parks I was able to get some portion of the project published for others to see. As I mentioned, any further ideas about how I might use the park images are welcomed and appreciated.