Simon Blint, Director of Visitor Relations at the SF MOMA, Yeah You A**hole, Photography is Not a Crime

Looks like Thomas Hawk had a little run in at SF MOMA. Nice picture though!

Recently I blogged about my excitement regarding the San Francisco MOMA’s decision to begin allowing photography in their permanent collection after years of maintaining a closed no photography policy. Directly because of this change in policy, I decided to purchase a family membership in order to support the museum, both with my artistic energy and financially. I was excited to begin spending regular time exploring and documenting the museum.

Unfortunately, I should have known better than to really believe that the San Francisco MOMA was serious about opening up the art and architecture entrusted to them to the general public.

It’s sad really that a photographer and artist following the museums own policy gets ejected from the museum.

This part did make me laugh though - shows you what people DON’T know, or care to find out.

He accused me of using a “telephoto” lens to spy on his staff from the public staircase on the second floor. Blint obviously knows nothing of photography because the 14mm ultra wide angle lens on my camera body was about the furthest thing possible from a telephoto lens.

Reminds me a bit of my own experiences… recently I took my DSLR to the swimming pool to photograph my wife and my daughter in one swimming class and my son in another. I got a few odd looks - granted it is a swimming pool - but I noticed quite a few people with point and shoots who didn’t even get a second glance… can’t wait to go back with a 5D and 70-200 f/2.8L and see what happens ;)

Be sure to read Thomas’ post and digg it as well!

Tags: moma, photography, rights, san francisco, sf, sfmoma, simon blint, thomas hawk

flickr Fave of the Day : If only you were here…

Originally uploaded by M.Gruber

I must say, I’ve been following M.Gruber’s stream for quite some time now, and he continues to amaze! Having completed the first year of a 365 days of self portraits projects, he’s trundled on to a Year Two and is continuing to raise the bar!

Great shots the last couple days man - keep up the great work!

Tags: fave of the day, flickr, m.gruber, matt

Straight Scoop on Copyright, Model Releases, and Shooting in Public

Scott Kelby has a great interview over on his blog with regards to copyright, model releases and shooting in public for photographers.

So, I contacted New York-based Intellectual Property Attorney Ed Greenberg, who’s a published author on the topic, and who has been dealing with photography copyright, contract, and creative rights issues for over 30 years, to finally get the straight no-nonsense scoop on all this.

Ed is absolutely brilliant; he communicates in Plain English (and with a great sense of humor as well), and he cuts through the bull and gets right to the point (which is why we now have Ed, and photography rights advocate Jack Reznicki, co-host a legal session for photographers at Photoshop World).

Very informative, make sure you head over and check out the two part video interview and the entire “Catch My Exclusive Interview with Attorney Ed Greenberg for the Straight Scoop on Copyright, Model Releases, and Shooting in Public” blog post!

Tags: copyright, kelby, law, lawyer, model releases, scott kelby, shooting in public, Street Photography

flickr Fave of the Day : Lake Beauvert by elementalPaul

Lake Beauvert Originally uploaded by elementalPaul

I had the pleasure of hooking up with Paul while he was in town. I’ve always loved his HDR stuff and it’s really cool to see his treatment of locations I’m familiar with.

I absolutely love this treatment he has given this shot that he took in Jasper.

Tags: alberta, elementalPaul, flickr, flickr Fave of the day, hdr, jasper, lake, landscape

Jamie Livingston “Some Photos of That Day” site returns…

Looks like they got the site back up. For those of you unfamiliar with the story, check out my post from yesterday.

Check out Some Photos of That Day, might be a bit slow at times but you can just imagine the amount of traffic this site must be getting!

Tags: jamie livingston, photo a day, picture a day, polaroid, threesixtyfive

The Ultimate Threesixtyfiver?

Stumbled across a post titled He Took a Polaroid Every Day, Until the Day He Died on the mental_floss blog yesterday, and thought it was simply amazing! I’ve seen people drop out of the 365 Project left, right and center - heck, I consider it occasionally…

Yesterday I came across a slightly mysterious website — a collection of Polaroids, one per day, from March 31, 1979 through October 25, 1997. There’s no author listed, no contact info, and no other indication as to where these came from. So, naturally, I started looking through the photos. I was stunned by what I found.

That’s an incredible 6,697 Polaroids, dated in sequence for 18 years! Chris Higgens over at the mental_floss blog did some research and found out:

Finally my investigation turned up the photographer as Jamie Livingston, and he did indeed take a photo every day for eighteen years, until the day he died, using a Polaroid SX-70 camera. He called the project “Photo of the Day” and presumably planned to collect them at some point — had he lived. He died on October 25, 1997 — his 41st birthday.

Two of Livingston’s friends got a hold of his Polaroid collection and set up an exhibit and website.

After Livingston’s death, his friends Hugh Crawford and Betsy Reid put together a public exhibit and website using the photos and called it JAMIE LIVINGSTON. PHOTO OF THE DAY: 1979-1997, 6,697 Polaroids, dated in sequence. The physical exhibit opened in 2007 at the Bertelsmann Campus Center at Bard College (where Livingston started the series, as a student, way back when). The exhibit included rephotographs of every Polaroid and took up a 7 x 120 foot space.

More detailed information can be read over at Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn’s Jamie Livingston section. Some cool stuff there… the official site is down, apparently:

The Photo of That Day project is a work in progress, and the site was put up partly to help coordinate the effort to put together the show at Bard College. That’s why there is so little information on the site. The photos of the post-its with dates are placeholders for photos that were lost.

I’ll keep an eye on it, they’re hoping to have the site back up today at some point…

Tags: 365, betsy reid, chris higgens, exhibit, hugh crawford, jamie livingston, mental floss, mental_floss, only the blog knows brooklyn, otbkb, photo of the day, polaroid, polaroid of the day, threesixtyfive

flickr Fave of the Day : cantaloupe vine by *Karo*

cantaloupe vine, Originally uploaded by *Karo*

I really like *Karo*’s work, and I really liked the composition, crop and simplicity of this shot.

Tags: *karo*, flickr Fave of the day

Jury Clears Photographer Who Refused to Stop Photographing an Arrest

Some good news over at Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection:

I was pleased today to see an article about photographer Nick Adams being cleared by a Galveston jury of misdemeanor charges of interfering with police while photographing an arrest at a Mardi Gras celebration in 2007.

What gets me is this:

Conveniently, and not surprising to me, police deleted some of Adam’s photos while they had him in custody which would have proved he was outside the perimeter established by the police. According to Adams’ defense attorney, the digital index from his camera showed that these photos were deleted.

That’s gotta be some sorta crime in itself!

While not an arrest, I’m sure these guys would have had something to say had they turn around while I was snapping the shot…

Check out the rest of Thomas’ Jury Clears Photographer Who Refused to Stop Photographing an Arrest post, and hit it up on Digg!

Tags: arrest, digg, jury, photographer, rights, Street Photography, thomas hawk

Almost Arrested for Taking Photos at Union Station

From Andy Carvin’s Waste of Bandwidth blog:

As some of you may know, I’ve been testing out a Gigapan panorama photo system over the last week, after I received a loaner of their robotic camera mount from Carnegie Mellon’s robotics lab. I brought it in to NPR to demonstrate it to colleagues and go on a photo safari to photograph the architecture at Union Station. Apparently, as far as Union Station’s security operations are concerned, that’s a criminal offense, since we nearly got arrested.

Check out the rest of his post then head on over and digg the story.

Tags: almost arrested, andy carvin, gigapan, photographer rights, photography, union station

If You Put That Picture On The Internet I’ll Call My Lawyer

Saw this image via Thomas Hawk on Flickr.

Photo taken by Jeremy Brooks
Uploaded to Flickr by Thomas Hawk

Seems his friend Jeremy Brooks, had a minor run in with this guy while out shooting some photos.

However, Mr. Angry Overreaction Man decided that he now had a problem with me. He confronted me, demanding my camera. Of course, I refused. He got in my face and started threatening me, telling me that I cannot take his photo without his permission. I told him that yes, in fact, I can. He then walked up and bumped into me, trying to act tough. I told him that one more touch and I would call the police.

As I mentioned on Thomas’ photostream, it is well within our rights to photography in public places (unless you live in Quebec)… ask me nice and I’ll be inclined not to post it - or send me a cordial e-mail if you see an image of you that I’ve taken and I’ll likely remove it at your request - be a jerk or worse and it’s going to go up for sure.

Check out Jeremy’s accounting of the incident on his blog.

Digg Jeremy’s original blog post.

Tags: anger, flickr, jeremy hall, photographer, Portrait, rights, thomas hawk