: An Extra Gaze :

The government will not exempt universities, libraries and small businesses providing open Wi-Fi services from its Digital Economy Bill copyright crackdown, according to official advice released earlier this week.

This would leave many organisations open to the same penalties for copyright infringement as individual subscribers, potentially including disconnection from the internet, leading legal experts to say it will become impossible for small businesses and the like to offer Wi-Fi access.

Lilian Edwards, professor of internet law at Sheffield University, told ZDNet UK on Thursday that the scenario described by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) in an explanatory document would effectively “outlaw open Wi-Fi for small businesses”, and would leave libraries and universities in an uncertain position.

via : An Extra Gaze :.

via : An Extra Gaze :.

The Bicycle Wheel

In a previous post I referred to the slope of the bath tub which was an analogy for proving your photographic gear. Of course the wise will do heavy testing at all ISO and lighting conditions to work out how the sensor records details in the shadows as well as the highlights. They will also test their lenses for sharpness, flaws and find the optimum aperture for it and so the testing goes on.

So back to the bicycle wheel; This is another analogy that relates to the business side of photography or outside services that you use, like printing, webhosting etc.

My webhosts recently disappeared from the face of the world wide web, reasons unstated. This left me with my personal websites vanishing, my 5 domains pointing to nowhere and a drop in email service and all just into the credit crunch, so my survival rate with clients going to empty 404 pages and email bouncing back must have thought I had gone bust in the doom and gloom of yet another recession.

This left me with at least a couple of weeks solid mess to clean up at a time when I was just to busy.

It would be easy to lay blame at the host, but my friend and photography buddy was notified of the closure ages ago, (oh yes the sod gloated about it as well…big time) with tools to move websites and domains to cause as little disruption as possible.  Now for some time I have realised that I was not getting service notifications direct, for some years in fact and despite changing my email on there control panel, no joy. so this was a loose spoke in a wheel; as it happens it was not the first.

You see that spoke came undone because of another spoke, my ISP years ago was Wanadoo; who I had no problems with but for some reason, were taken over by Orange who decided they were not big enough  as a mobile phone company and could play at being an internet service provider. It was these who gave me problems with service; so much so I ended up requesting the MAC code (several times and without internet) and switched and bang goes my ISP email with Wanadoo. Cancelled as I told Orange where to stuff there awful service, and not in a polite terms either.

Now what I did not realise at the time was that my email for the webhost was now dead and although I changed it in the control panel there was no way to verify/authenticate the change so this was the first loose spoke, which led to the second loose spoke, before the wheel became broken.

In the past I have remedied an alternative services because of poor service on an online archival system. I ditched them after 6 months because their servers went down and the backup failed; it took weeks for them to restore service and it was at a time when I needed to get images to a client urgently.

Indecently, it was a right move as before Christmas they went under leaving hundreds of photographers and agencies stranded. In comparison my current archive people have not been down once, since 2005 (or as far as I know, before then when I joined) Yes I pay a little more, but it is at least one weight off my mind, and the service is one to one via a phone, with people who know a lot about the photography business, so the advice extends beyond the archive. If I need help with a difficult pricing job I can phone them for advice, their success is my success as they see it!

There are lessons here of course:

• If a company niggles away at you because of poor service, ditch them, it makes you out as being un-professional and one day will catch you out.
• The other is to use an online webmail like Google, Yahoo etc for your logins and system notifications, that way regardless of your ISP it will always be available.

Remember a loose spoke puts the rim out of line, and other spokes will become loose or break, so when you notice a loose spoke….fix it

Photographers agree to blur firearms officers faces

Now this is what really annoys me, who has given the photographers, agencies and newspapers the authority to agree to this, this should have gone trough the unions for a decision if any.

So now we have “The police will be issuing guidelines to picture desks across all London papers soon.” but thousands of press photographers won’t get that guideline, so it should be down to the editors decision on what is needed in privacy as they are the ones in control if a picture is too horrific it is the editors decision not the photographer. What about other forces don’t they have firearms officers? Do the guidelines apply?

We just don’t have time to vet and consider if the image is offensive to readers or we may have breached some hidden point of privacy in an individual we would have to start asking them this right at the beginning in which case the pictures change dramatically from the candid approach that says its real and not set up or posed.

It is also interesting to note that Nigel Howard an Evening Standard Photographer said “there could still a problem when “citizen journalists” take
pictures of crime scenes using mobile phones, but he admitted there was
little either side could do about it.”

No there is little you can do about it and you don’t have the right to speak for them either Howard!

Now its all very well them saying one dads kid got jibbed at school but that can happen for anyone who appearers in the paper, what about parents committing sucide, or being a hippy a pagan, a priest, all of which is enough for a kid to get teased at school, thats waht school is like…sadley

Photographers agree to blur firearms officers’ faces – Press Gazette

A group of Fleet Street photographers has agreed to greater cooperation with firearms police officers with the Metropolitan Police, including pixelating faces to hide the marksmen’s identities.

About 12 newspaper, agency and freelance photographers met senior officers from CO19, the Metropolitan Police’s Specialist Firearms Command, yesterday in a bid to foster better relations between police and press. Read More>>

Bruce Schneier: Are photographers really a threat?

Well have you been to the movies lately? this is one well worth keeping so when you get harassed for showing your camera in a public place

What is it with photographers these days? Are they really all terrorists, or does everyone just think they are?

Since 9/11, there has been an increasing war on photography. Photographers have been harrassed, questioned, detained, arrested or worse, and declared to be unwelcome. We’ve been repeatedly told to watch out for photographers, especially suspicious ones. Clearly any terrorist is going to first photograph his target, so vigilance is required.

Except that it’s nonsense. The 9/11 terrorists didn’t photograph anything. Nor did the London transport bombers, the Madrid subway bombers, or the liquid bombers arrested in 2006. Timothy McVeigh didn’t photograph the Oklahoma City Federal Building. The Unabomber didn’t photograph anything; neither did shoe-bomber Richard Reid. Photographs aren’t being found amongst the papers of Palestinian suicide bombers. The IRA wasn’t known for its photography. Even those manufactured terrorist plots that the US government likes to talk about — the Ft. Dix terrorists, the JFK airport bombers, the Miami 7, the Lackawanna 6 — no photography.

Bruce Schneier: Are photographers really a threat? | Technology | The Guardian

Flickr not so on side, with photographers rights, apparently…

According to Flickr’s user Shutterfever it appears that Flickr are not quite on the same side as photographers and have been deleting comments made over a video where a photographer has been harassed by a security guard for taking pictures in the street

As i didn’t mean to go to Stoke  says:

Nearly 20 000 have watched this video, 38 000 have seen my photo.
The story has been read by over 30 000 people in the local press.
On American websites the story and video has been followed by tens of thousands of people. Over 100 000 people have heard this on Radio 4.
Attempts to gag us and preventing the truth from getting out there have failed completely.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/photodrift/2422740769/

and this thread  here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/happyaslarry/2420960125/

Any one for Ipenity?

Innocent photographer or terrorist?

Just found this on the BBC website if you are into photography you can go and sign the petition but asking for the PM to clarify the laws is not a good idea in my opinion. It is open invitation to put laws into place when they are not needed.

Its paranoia that if you have a camera you are a terrorist or up to no good and a culture of fear has been built up deliberately. There is no law saying you are allowed to take pictures in a public place, there is no law saying you can’t either; its considered a right

British police force vows to act on photographers’ anti-terror fears

Three weeks ago I reported that Photographers were under attack and more recently found a video of a film maker getting grief in London and the NUJ calling for ‘Press Freedom Protest’

Well at least the Met look like they are going to reverse there stance over people photographing in London. Maybe they realise photography is quite a natural lifestyle thing to do and we may not be terrorist’s after all.

However if the Met Police are going to play this as “we weren’t aware of the issues of photographers” frankly they can get stuffed, the NUJ have been complaining to the Met for more years than I can remember over abuse to press photographers and reminding them of photographers rights. (see the ‘Resources for the Photographer’ box on the sidebar for downloadable photographer rights guides)

I have to say I have grave concerns over policing in this country when I got stopped and searched at the end of last year for “subject in possession of long lens Nikon camera” (it was in fact only a 24-120 mm zoom and in fact my G9 has a greater focal length range) even when I have a UK press Card. My concern is that an amateur photographer, unaware of their rights may not have faired so well, and could have even ended up being arrested!

I appreciate and understand the police and government  have fears over terrorism, but who is actually calling the shots here? It’s clearly not a government initiative and terrorism, which is a concern to us all has to be kept in perspective like the BBC has pointed out here it is not a new threat to the UK and during the troubles with the IRA we had far more attacks and loss of life than 7/7. Cameras were around then too, and probably used for surveillance by the IRA but it wasn’t deemed necessary to accuse the citizens of being terrorists. It makes little sense to me to restrict the law abiding citizens to a point they are the prisoners and there rights taken way from them.

Well that enough of my rant, Amateur Photographer has a piece on them with links to the MP’s Launching a petition in the House of Commons and more…

Press Freedom Protest! New Scotland Yard!

This is not the sort of headline you or I would expect to see in a democratic, civilised western country, but increasingly press photographers and amateur  photographers are becoming targeted more and more. recently the Met launched an add campaign that makes photographers look like a terrorist suspect. On a personal level I am getting stopped more and more even though I have a UK Press Card (not shown)

Restrictions on the right to protest have gone hand in hand with attacks on those of us who cover protests.  In recent months there have been attacks on photographers, people have had equipment seized and access has been denied. Police officers routinely stand in front of photographers, hold a hand in front of lenses, preventing decent shots being taken by deadline.

Our lawful right to do our job is increasingly under threat.

To highlight such attacks on the freedom of the media, NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear will stage a lone protest outside New Scotland Yard:

Date: Friday 28th March 2008.
Time: 2-3pm.
Place: New Scotland Yard, London, S1.

Map:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=New+Scotland+Yard,+London,+S1&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=N&tab=wl

Whilst the law puts restrictions on how many protesters and the nature of any protest, photographers have a right to cover protests – lawful or otherwise.

Yet that right is all too often being denied.

Show your support for the right to photograph protests free from threats or intimidation.

Join the ‘press pack’ at 2pm!

Don’t forget your UK Press Card! – Maybe wear it with pride! or buy one of these protest T-shirts from Editorial Photographers UK (EPUK) that says “Thousands of coppers stop photographers each day – What if one of them seems odd” and “State control – if you see it report it” Yes put me down for a   t-shirt

Important Lightroom 1.4 and Camera Raw 4.4 Update

Oops….

Important Lightroom 1.4 and Camera Raw 4.4 Update

The Lightroom 1.4 update for Mac and Windows has been temporarily removed from the Adobe.com web site.  Those Lightroom users who have installed Lightroom 1.4 should uninstall the update and install Lightroom 1.3.1.(Mac, Win) until a further update can be provided. For those not in immediate need of the updated camera support available in Camera Raw 4.4 or the DNG 4.4 Converter, it’s recommended that you also continue working with the 4.3.1 versions. (Mac, Win)  This decision is based on the following errors that have been discovered with the recent update:

• EXIF Time Stamp Error: There is an error in the EXIF time stamp update technology that causes Lightroom to believe that the files are out of sync with the correct time stamp as displayed in Lightroom. Any ensuing metadata update will attempt to incorrectly modify the EXIF time stamp in the original raw file itself.  This is the only metadata field that Lightroom will write to an original proprietary raw file. This error will not impact the integrity of your image data.  The Camera Raw plug-in also will incorrectly change the EXIF time stamp in files converted by the plug-in.  The information written to the XMP sidecar files or XMP metadata in the converted files will remain correct.
• DNG Conversion Error(Windows Only): With the latest version of the Lightroom 1.4 and Camera Raw 4.4 applications, Adobe has included technology to verify that the image data in a DNG file is unchanged from when it was originally converted to DNG.  Unfortunately, when converting to DNG using Lightroom 1.4 on Windows, the application will write an incorrect verification tag to describe the image data.  When Lightroom attempts to work with those files in the Develop module, the application reads that incorrect tag, believes that there is something wrong with the raw data and will present an error.  Rest assured, there is nothing wrong with the integrity of your image data or metadata.  For those that have already converted their files to DNG using Lightroom 1.4(Windows only) we recommend using the DNG 4.3.1 converter to convert the DNG files you’ve created with Lightroom 1.4.
• Olympus Conversion Error:  There is an error in converting Olympus JPEG files to other formats in Lightroom 1.4 and the Camera Raw 4.4 plug-in. 

To uninstall Lightroom 1.4 please see the instructions per your platform:
Mac: Delete the Lightroom application in the Application folder(Mac) and Delete the following file:  Library/Receipts/Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.pkg
Windows: Choose the Uninstall Lightroom 1.4 menu item from the Windows start menu.  The Add/Remove Program utility on Windows will also achieve the same result. 

To replace the Camera Raw 4.4 plug-in with the 4.3.1 plug-in, follow the manual installation instructions provided on the download page linked above.

I will post additional updates to this blog as we have more information on the timing and scope of the future update.

Lightroom Journal: Important Lightroom 1.4 and Camera Raw 4.4 Update

How to upgrade to a G9

I am not endorsing this as a practice, but the following does show how much we love photography and just how easy it is to loose a camera. Get it insured!