Aerial Photo’s Views Skyrocket Thanks to Spellings

Photo by Atwater Village Newbie

When Candy Spelling put her Holmby Hills house on the market last week, a Flickr user saw his page views go through the roof. It just so happened that an LA photographer, who goes by Atwater Village Newbie (and runs a local blog by the same name),  had been taking a helicopter tour about a year ago and spotted the extravagant mansion (also known as the “Spelling Manor” in pretentious-speak). He thought it’d make for a good photo. “The sheer size of the house caught my eye, of course, as did the idea of getting a rare peek into the backyards of the rich and famous,” he says.  

It wasn’t until a fellow Flickr user commented that the house looked to be the Spelling mansion that AVN knew what an interesting shot he indeed had. With the real estate listing announcement, AVN released many of the rights of the photo under Creative Commons to encourage people to use it and link back to his work. The Flickr photo went from 9,000 views on the day of the announcement, March 25, to 39,000 views on March 29. About a third of the views came from this Daily Telegraph article out of Australia.

And if you’re interested in the Spelling abode, the most expensive residence in the U.S., it’s going for $150 million. Bad economy? Not for some!

Loading or Carb-Loading?

With this post, we diverge from our central theme of photography and photographers’ rights to just peoples’ rights — that  is to say, our rights as people to have our tax dollars well-spent and our city employees follow the very laws they enforce.

Case in point: this video, taken this past week in East Hollywood, where our dogged local parking enforcement officer uses the loading zone as a parking spot for her lunch break. This is the same parking officer who tirelessly drives up and down our neighborhood blocks all day long, looking for cars on the wrong side of the street on street cleaning days and in red zones and with expired meters.

Somewhere we missed it in the Los Angeles city code where parking enforcement officers don’t need to obey the law. Wow, what a job perk! If someone has a copy of that, please send it our way.

*Shot with the Vievu wearable recording device.

Under Water

Photo by Dave Arntson

Sometimes I feel bad for the parts of our country that experience a disaster (natural  or otherwise) but don’t have the good fortune of being in New York or DC. There is a major city under water right now, but you barely hear about it.

Fargo, North Dakota’s biggest city, and its surrounding communities have been inundated by unprecedented flooding this past week. At one point the Red River peaked at 40.82 feet, more than 22 feet over flood stage. If that happened in midtown Manhattan, you better believe it would be the world’s greatest tragedy and the coverage would be unending. (And I lived in New York City for seven years and I love the place, but the melodrama gets to me.)

Photojournalist Dave Arntson posted a series of pictures on his  web site this week which are worth taking a look at — they’re great photos of the scene in Fargo and neighboring Moorhead, Minn., but, at the bare minimum, they will make you feel thankful you’re dry.

In the Name of Terrorism, More Fear in London

It’s been a good week for paranoia-inducing ad campaigns. London has rolled out its latest counter-terrorism posters, which feature, among others images, a full trash can and a security camera with the message that people need to report on their neighbors and fellow citizens when things seem off. This is in addition to the posters released earlier that specifically targeted photographers and cell phone users.

Incidentally, a three-year study released in February found that the anti-terror methods employed in places like the US and the UK are illegal and counter-productive. While the study specifically referred to the detainment and torture of terrorism suspects, I think it can be applied to the overall climate for so-called “suspicious” activity, including photography. Our leaders not only don’t have a problem with using our fear to implement measures that are not legal or ethical, they are relying on it as a tool of governance.

“Many governments, ignoring the lessons of history, have allowed themselves to be rushed into hasty responses to terrorism that have undermined cherished values and violated human rights,” said the chairman of the study’s panel of legal experts.

To boil it all down, it just seems so incredibly ham-handed. Do people need to be reminded to report something they feel is suspicious? And why do our governments need to fight the the nebulous beast that is international terrorism by impairing their own peoples’ quality of life? 

Article via Boing Boing

Eddie Adams – Iconic War Photographer

Photo by Eddie Adams/Associated Press

I’m not a great believer in the power of the moving image. A still image has greater lasting power. A still photographer has to show the whole fucking movie in one picture. On the screen, it’s over and back in the can in seconds. A still picture is going to be there forever. — Eddie Adams

If you haven’t been haunted by Eddie Adams’ photography, maybe you just didn’t know it was his. His most iconic image, of a South Vietnamese police chief  executing a Vietcong suspect in 1968, won him a Pulitzer Prize and international acclaim. Adams hated being defined by that photo — and the responsibility that came with it. He got into celebrity portraiture when he returned from Vietnam.

In the new book “Eddie Adams: Vietnam,” Adams’ war photography is showcased, including 200 never-before-seen photos that his first wife found in her garage. (And a documentary on Adams, ”An Unlikely Weapon,” will be released in April.)

In this week’s New Yorker, there’s a small piece on the gallery show in Brooklyn that coincides with the book’s release. In it, Chris Hondros, a photographer for Getty who’s logged many years in Iraq, comments on war photography then and now:

“That picture is almost a template of what a photographer tries to do in Iraq. At least so far, a truly iconic picture like that has not emerged.” He took one photograph, he said, that reminds people of Adams. “It’s a picture of a little girl. It was after a checkpoint shooting with U.S. soldiers. They shot up a car coming toward them, and it turned out it was just an Iraqi family. They killed the parents, who were in the front seat, and the children in the back survived.” Hondros’s picture shows the girl, one of the survivors, crouching at the feet of an American soldier and holding out her hands, which are covered with blood. “It ran all over the world,” he said. “I got a lot of e-mails—‘This picture is going to stop the war, just like Eddie Adams’s picture.’ This was in January, 2005. And that didn’t happen.” 

Article via The New Yorker

Chicago to Give Security Guards More Power?

In what has to be the king of bad ideas, Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago said a proposal to give private security guards the authority to write tickets might just be a good thing for the city.

The Chicago Tribune reports that two South Side alderman proposed the idea to allow the private armed security guards that patrol their districts to have ticket-writing authority  for minor infractions, like loitering, graffiti and parking violations. They reason that that will free up the real cops to focus on violent crime.

“It’s not a bad idea,” Daley said. “The more police you have out there … I like the concept … it will help us.” Does Daley really understand the proposal? They are not proposing more police on the street. They’re proposing to give non-police more police-like authority.

In a city known the world over for its colossal corruption problem, giving what amounts to hourly contractors the authority to ticket whomever they see fit is rife with problems. Questions that immediately pop to mind…. Who are the security guards accountable to? Will they have additional training in law enforcement? What happens when the guy they’re trying to ticket for tagging pulls a gun?

It seems like, counter to the plan, you will see an uptick in violence and unrest coming from altercations with inexperienced guards and petty criminals, along with wrongful citations and claims against the city.

Thankfully the police union denounced the idea, and let’s hope the proposal doesn’t go far.  In the Chicago Sun-Times, the Fraternal Order of Police’s Greg Bella said,  “When you put somebody out there who does not know the job, it makes double work for us.”

While I am no fan of cops writing citations, I would much prefer to get one from them over a clueless power-tripping security guard with no real background in law enforcement. Can you imagine if these guys had that power?

Article from the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times

Pre-Olympic Fear and Paranoia in Vancouver

Photo by cabbit

It seems Canadian authorities want to get in on the action of harassing photographers.

According to the CBC, an advertising campaign was launched in Vancouver in advance of the 2010 Winter Olympics to encourage citizens to be more vigilant about possible terrorism. With the tagline “Report the suspicious, not the strange,” the ads can be seen in TransLink stations throughout the city. The problem is, the campaign is essentially spreading suspicion and fear of cameras. 

As Richard Smith, who is a communications professor at Simon Fraser University, says in the article, “You’re asking people to make judgments about others’ behaviour. What makes something suspicious — is it the clothes I wear, the colour of my skin? How far do we go down that path?” Exactly. Your offbeat architecture photographer could be my fundamental terrorist on a mission.

Encouraging awareness is great, and I have no problem with that. However, ad campaigns like this are specifically targeting photographers and thereby criminalizing them. I don’t worry so much about the citizens’ reaction, but I do think this legitimizes law enforcement’s wanton and unwarranted harassment of photographers.

How much do you want to bet photographers on Vancouver’s public transit system are going to encounter a lot of problems in the coming year? (Keep us posted.)

Article via CBC

Found on Flickr: amadnomad

This is another installment in our continuing series where we talk to photographers whose work we’ve appreciated on Flickr.

This week we feature amadnomad.

discarted: So who is this little girl with her traveling zoo we found on flickr? What’s your relationship to her?

amadnomad: The little girl is my daughter, Zhenya L’vovna Jabban Rukhina. She is 2 years old.

discarted: Wow, that’s quite the name…where did it come from?

amadnomad: In Russia, the middle name is a patronymic — in other words, if you are male your middle name is your father’s first name plus -vich. If you are female you add -ovna. Zhenya (named after my father who was a famous painter in Russia) L’vovna (Lev+ovna, but the “e” is replaced by a character that does not exist in Latin characters) Jabban (her mom’s last name) Rukhina (my last name, but in Russia, women get an “a” at the end. Hence the complicated but *fun* name.

discarted: Looking at the photos, you can see that Zhenya has quite the collection of toy animals. Where did they all come from?

amadnomad: Her mom bought her the toy animals. Zhenya loves arranging them and corralling them about the city.

discarted: Can you describe what it’s like to wrangle up Zhenya and the entire traveling zoo for a day out with the camera?

amadnomad: I always carry my camera (Rolleiflex or EOS 1DS). Whenever I catch Zhenya playing with her animals, I try to capture the beauty and innocence of a child’s fascination.

discarted: What spawned this fabulous idea?

amadnomad: I noticed Zhenya’s imagination as she played with the giraffe over breakfast one day. I took a photo and came to admire her rapture with the animals, her “down time” as she quietly played.

discarted: For some time now I haven’t seen an image that has really stuck with me. But these three really crawled under my skin. I was fascinated and amused yet I was also creeped out by them. How would you describe them? 

amadnomad: The images area documentation of our journey via public transportation from Hollywood to the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City.

Though this was meant to be a shot of the loneliness one may experience during a layover from one bus to another, when you find yourself in an unknown section of the city, thinking of what is to come or what you have just left behind. The trash can, however, lent the image a much more forlorn feel, inaccurate of what I wanted to portray. I agree, it came out a bit creepy.

The excitement of waiting for the bus, of the adventure ahead. Fun!

Aahh, the adventure is under way. Unknown faces, unknown places, brochures and fliers everywhere. Exciting time of experience.

discarted: Are there any Zhenya shoots planned for the future? What are some of the other interesting and funny locations we might see her in?

amadnomad: I am working on a new series for Zhenya all the time. 

To see more of amadnomad’s work checkout Lever and Fulcrum.

Interview by discarted.

Oh, How the Apple Has Fallen

Screen grab from Apple.com

With the advancement of technology and the proliferation of  rapidly outdated gadgets, Apple once again releases another featureless iPod. Planned obsolescence is alive and well.

Lacking any control buttons on Apple’s newest iPod shuffle, your headphone jack has officially been highjacked by Apple, restricting you to don their iconic white headphones to operate “the first music player to talk to you.” Enslaved by this monopolized feature, we will all now walk the streets as Apple’s permanent billboards, unable to use another brand’s headphones with this battery-sized rectangle.

With a sleek, catchy design and ability to hold 1000 songs,  Apple’s “amazingly small” device will fit easily into our consumer-driven culture, compelling us to purchase a second one as soon we lose the first one after attempting to use it with our “eyes closed.” And in case you’re lucky enough to only lose the headphones (which is the only way to play Apple’s tiniest music player),  it will cost you just $79 to purchase a brand new set of Apple’s in-Ear Headphones — the entire cost of a 4GB iPod Shuffle (including the headphones).

Way to go, Apple. Just like your stock price, your newly designed and “innovative” products have fallen far from the tree and are now just fermenting on the ground.

Note: We realize this site is about photography and photographers’ rights, but we do know a lot of photographers who listen to music via an iPod while out shooting. And even if you don’t, chances are you’re an Apple customer, it being a monopoly and all.

Don’t Mess With Texas…Cops

Image from Action 4 News

Many police officers don’t engender respect because they don’t treat people with it. Time and time again this happens, and the scenario is always the same.  A reporter who is doing his job and doesn’t kowtow to a cop’s demands then gets arrested. The charges are invariably “resisting, ” “obstructing a peace officer” or “interfering with public duties.”

The latest case of police abuse of power comes out of Mission, Texas, where Action 4 News reporter Victor Castillo was arrested this past Thursday while videotaping a crime scene. In the video, Castillo had a minor confrontation with Officer McCrea of the Mission Police Department — actually more more like an exchange of words — and it seems that McCrea didn’t feel like Castillo was being sufficiently deferential so he arrested him.

Just because officers have the ability to arrest anyone they feel like doesn’t mean they should. How about practicing some restraint sometimes? I would imagine dealing with confrontation is a key part of the job description.

If I were a betting man, I would put my money on all charges being dropped and Castillo filing a lawsuit against  McCrea and the Mission Police Department for violating his 1st Amendment rights and for being unlawfully arrested.

On the other hand, I wouldn’t put anything on McCrea being disciplined for his actions. That’s just not how it works in this country. Cops like McCrea can break the law and keep their jobs, but it’s the taxpayers who pay for their crimes.

 

To voice you concerns contact Chief Leo Longoria of the Mission Police by clicking here. 

Article via ValleyCentral.com