Single-Serving Photo

This comes up a lot; you want to take some photographs but you don’t want to be treated like you might be a terrorist. It seems like headlines about photographers being hassled and even assaulted by law enforcement are perpetually flying. A BBC spoof site, NewsArse, even put out this satirical article called Terrorists ‘sick of being treated like photographers’.

If you are looking forward to photographing in a city, especially one that keeps close watch for terrorist activity like New York City does, the best thing you can do is know your rights.

Can you photograph in public in NYC? Yes, of course you can. Can you photograph in the subway system? Yes, it’s explicitly permitted (as long as you are not interfering with the operation of the subway or blocking access, etc.). Do you need a permit to use a tripod on the sidewalk? No, you don’t, but if you try to set up your tripod on a busy sidewalk, New Yorkers might kick you, so try not to be a nuisance about it.

Check out NYPD Operations Order 14, wherein the guidelines for field officers dealing with photographers are spelled out in detail:

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I have read of photographers printing out similar documents to carry with them in the event that they are stopped, and that may not be a bad idea at all. Just remember a couple of really important things:

1. Know exactly what your rights are. Research the location you are going to be in and familiarize yourself with the local ordinances.
2. Be courteous and respectful. If an officer is giving you a hard time because they like it, being rude to them is only going to make matters worse. Be understanding of their position, and firm in stating your rights.
3. Comply with directives. If an officer asks you to do something, short of deleting your photographs (which they cannot do without a warrant, at a minimum), do it. You may state that you are complying under protest, but don’t get into a situation where you are resisting, because that can lead to real charges against you.

Following these simple rules will ensure you have a productive and safe shoot!

Remember when I told you about that crazy remote-controlled robot carting a DSLR that these two British brothers would drive around Africa, taking up-close-and-personal photos of wild animals? It was called the BeetleCam, and it was the brainchild of William and Matthew Burrard-Lucas, two swiftly burgeoning wildlife photographers from the UK.

Well, they’re at it again, only this time they’re not using a remote-controlled dune buggy and they’re not photographing lions or elephants. They’re using an ingenious tabletop lighting setup and capturing the births of mosquito larvae.

See all of the amazing macro photos and read about the brothers’ technical process on their guest post on Digital Photography School!

Via Digital Photography School, via Burrard-Lucas.com

To the right of your histogram that is. You do remember how to read one, yes? Slightly, ever so slightly exposing all of your photographs to the right of the histogram, which is to say slightly overexposing them, should be your goal, 100% of the time.

Why? Because there is more data in the brightest few stops of sensor attenuation than in the rest of the entire range, which is to say that there will be more detail, less banding, less noise, and so forth, within the brightest areas than there will be in the darkest ones. But you’ve observed that before, right? You’ve seen how terrible shadow areas can look when you try to brighten them up.

“It’s better to overexpose a photo than to underexpose it.“—Will Greenwald

Then there’s this guy Will Greenwald. He just posted a whole article about this in which he says “it’s better to overexpose a photo than to underexpose it.” Awesome, I agree. But neither of us are saying you should “blow out” any of your image; definitely don’t do that.

Strangely, most of the people who commented on Will’s article disagreed with him. Those people are amateurs. Read the rest of this entry »

To say that photographing the fireworks display in Washington, D.C. is a challenge might be hyperbole. Compared to those in Boston and New York City, which I’ve photographed two times each, getting a reasonable spot to shoot from is a cakewalk.

The National Mall opens at around 10 AM, but even at 3 PM there are still plenty of good spots by the Lincoln Memorial, so there’s no need to hurry. The real challenge, it would seem, is the complete and total lack of information about the strategy and considerations of shooting in the heart of the nation’s capital. Read the rest of this entry »

As I’m sure you’ve heard, Dennis Hopper passed away just days ago (the 29th of May, 2010). As an actor, I personally loved his roles in such classics as Super Mario Bros., Waterworld, and Speed, though he is best known for Easy Rider, Rebel Without a Cause, Cool Hand Luke, and more. He certainly had a knack for the dramatic, but what I didn’t know was that he also had a knack for photography.

The “Chasing Light” blog has a wonderful post containing photos that Hopper took through the years (all of them black and white). I was very impressed with them; they show attention to composition and subject comparable to those of a seasoned professional or serious hobbyist. You could certainly call Hopper a serious hobbyist, though he was more widely known for his feature films than for his photography, painting, and sculpture.

Over at artnet, you can view (and attempt to purchase) 39 other photographs by Hopper that are held by various galleries.

Whether you are into Hopper’s photographs or not, let’s take a moment to remember a great actor and inspirational creator.