now that the weekend is almost over, i find myself looking headlong into another wintry week here in nova scotia. the weather has gotten warmer by a small margin, and i've stuck to my resolution to take my camera everywhere. there's a roll in the camera that i plan to finish today and develop either tomorrow or tuesday -being my next day off- and pack up my canon for send-off at the same time.
the most fun part is the complete lack of an actual viewfinder on the camera. the detachable fisheye on top serves as an aid in estimation, but is by no means a true preview.
a topic that i've often discussed with people in person, but haven't talked about much on here is knowing your rights as a photographer. as a person that used to live in a city with a subway system and no shortage of police officers, i often questioned where i was and was not allowed to take photos. rumors flew about everything from people being arrested for taking photos in stations down to a simple request for the photographer to delete the items from said camera. on the contrary, i had also heard about people that stood up to this kind of bullying when taking photos in certain places was obviously a-ok.
here's a story about new york resident robert taylor's experience with the NYPD.
No Photo Ban in Subways, Yet an Arrest.
via [New York Times]
and for internet / obama geeks like myself, here's a bit of amusement.
via [BoingBoing]
2 comments:
You know, it's funny because I feel sort of antsy about taking random (read not touristy) shots in public around here, because I'm always sort of worried about what kind of reaction I'm going to get. I know it's a different set of issues, in some ways, from what you'd face in a city such as Toronto in terms of security threats and such, but I guess that what you're saying in terms of photographer confidence/rights comes into play. I think we're often more concerned with might happen than with what will actually happen -- not to downplay the sometimes very scary situations photographers find themselves in because someone deems their work to be threatening. Ok, I've rambled on for far too long. This is a really interesting topic. I think there's an interesting discussion to be had in terms of motivation and how the photograph in question will be used as well. Really.must.stop.writing.
I definitely agree that it's more about what we worry will happen than will actually happen in most situations - especially living in a smaller place. It's still pretty upsetting to see that things like this can happen though. One of my biggest worries is that I'll photograph someone inadvertently and have them be uncomfortable with it. I guess something like that can be resolved as simply as asking for permission, though. Food for thought.
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