The Right To Photograph

Violinist, Nancy Dinovo, cries while playing during a service at Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Vancouver for the September 11 victims of terrorist attacks in the United States.

A lot of things changed on Sept. 11, 2001.  The world changed that day, and not for the better.  Many pundits, politicians, and others, much smarter than me, have talked about the reasons and effects of that day over 9 years ago.  However, one of the most lasting results, on me, has been that it has become increasingly difficult to take photographs in public places.  After 9/11 many government agencies around the world used the attacks from that awful day as an excuse to illegally ban photography.

In Canada, photography and freedom of the press are protected by The Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  It states specifically:

FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS.

Sec. 2.  Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:

(a) freedom of conscience and religion;

(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;

(c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and

(d) freedom of association.

These freedoms are deemed to be so important that they are titled Fundamental Freedoms and are the first ones outlined in the charter.  The laws, and rights of photographers, in the U.S.A. are outlined here.

More after the jump...

Personal Work

Being a photographer is hard.  At times, crushingly so.  But sometimes, it is rewarding beyond my wildest dreams.  Not financially, that's what the lottery's for.  What I'm talking about is personal.  Personal satisfaction.  The kind which comes from shooting pictures that mean something to me, and not worrying about what they are to anyone else.  Shooting on assignment is a juggling act.  First and foremost, this means providing my client with pictures that work for the story.  What goes into making those pictures is complex.  It involves a mixture of client needs, subject collaboration, and my creative vision.  The reason my clients hire me, is my ability to whip all those elements into the special sauce that makes great pictures.

Doing self assigned work is different.  It allows me to be exactly the photographer I want to be.  It is an opportunity to try something different, to take my work in a new direction.  To do work that I may not be assigned to do by a client.  The beautiful thing about it is, personal work leads to assignments.  It's a spectacular win-win situation.  Be the photographer you want to be, shoot the pictures you want to, and in the eyes of your clients, you become that photographer.  How cool is that.  It's like being a Jedi Knight, be the photographer you want to be.

My personal project on the weather observatory on the summit of Mount Washington, in New Hampshire. 

More here...

Which helped me to get this assignment, through my agency Redux Pictures, from Geo Magazine, on the voyageurs and the fur trade in Canada.

More here...

One of my most rewarding personal projects, led to one of favourite assignments.  I love it when a plan comes together.

Originality & Creativity

I'm sure I'm not alone in struggling with the idea of doing original and meaningful, work.  For a photographer, it is the holy grail.  However, sometimes I find myself so curious about a place, or idea, that despite it's being photographed before, and really what hasn't?  I want to explore it for myself.  The Salton Sea was that place, and it has been shot many times before.

It was every bit as strange as I had hoped, and then some.  But, I'm not sure my pictures added anything of value.  I guess going to the Salton Sea is a bit like shooting a story on boxing, it makes for some cool pictures, but nothing everyone hasn't seen before.  But is that essential?  Is it not O.K. to shoot pictures just because you want to?  Even if you know full well, they'll never change the world.

More photos here

Vancouver 2010...

The 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games was one of the best experiences of my professional life.  18-20 hours a day for 18 days, and I loved every minute of it.  O.K. perhaps not the the part about getting to venues as much as 9 hours before an event to get the shooting position I wanted, but otherwise it was phenomenal.

What's not to love, shooting the world's best athletes surrounded by the world's best sports photographers.  The only thing better than the Vancouver Olympics?  It looks like I'm going to London for the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games.

More Olympic photos here

Abbotsford Photo Arts Club

I will be doing a two hour workshop on digital workflow at the Abbotsford Photo Arts Club seminar on Saturday, Oct. 16th at 9:15 AM.

Gear I use.

I use a lot of gear.  Cameras, lenses, cards, strobes, grip, computer, and countless other essentials.  However, one of the least glamorous, most important, but often neglected pieces of equipment, are, hard drives.  I use two different types of external drives, desktop (office) and portable (location/travel).  Recently I bought another portable HD for use while on location or the road.  Before I get into specifics, I want to talk about the idea behind buying HDs.  BACK-UP YOUR WORK!  Yes, that's right I'm shouting.  It amazes me how many photographers don't adequately back up their work.  There is absolutely no excuse not to.  It is easy, and inexpensive, relatively speaking, to back-up your information and pictures.  The downside to not doing it, is potentially, losing all of your digital files.  I use a combination of HDs and offsite server back-ups.

My primary method for back-ups are HDs.  I am using Photoshelter for some of my selects, but I haven't yet found an affordable option for large amounts of online storage.  The drive I recently bought is a Lacie 1 TB, Rugged drive.  You can buy them here.  They are designed to be shockproof, I don't advise testing it though.  When I travel I use 3 external HDs. two for storage of my photos, and one which is a bootable back-up of my MacBook Pro.  The final aspect of my travel back-up plan is to carry one HD with my photos in my carry-on lap-top bag, and the bootable back-up and other HD with photos in my checked baggage.  Now, before you label me a lunatic for putting HDs in the hands of the gorillas that are sometimes referred to as baggage handlers, hear me out.  I put the two checked HDs in a Pelican case which fits two portable HDs and cables perfectly.  These cases are damn near indestructible and it allows me another layer of redundancy and protection.  This way, if either of my bags gets delayed, lost or stolen, I will be still be in business.

This system is simple, reasonably inexpensive, and works for me.  If you have any thoughts or recommendations, drop a line in the comments.

Hipstamatic

Gotta love the Hipstamatic...

Copyright-A call to arms!

I'm going to try to post more often.  Posts will include pictures, links, news, and random stuff that interests me.

Let's kick it off with a couple of links, one entry in the "truth is stranger than fiction category" and another one where someone who doesn't create copyrighted works, or make a living from creative work, is advocating that copyright is an outdated concept and should be abolished.

I love it when tenured professors, like Lawrence Lessig and Michael Geist, with a secure and stable income not reliant on constantly creating and innovating, say that copyright laws need to recognize that creative works should be allowed to be used without compensation, or authorization, to or from the creator of the work.  The reality is, that as a photographer, if I can't be paid for my work, I can't afford to do it.  While I'm not saying that it would be a huge loss to society if I stopped creating, but what if all copyright holders stopped creating?  The vast majority of copyright holders are individuals like me, not big multi national corporations that these guys love to hate.  Sure, some copyright holders make vast amounts of money from their work, but most are like me, creative individuals who love what they do and try to support their family through their work.