Jul

22

Creative Commons

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Sir Harold Kroto I’ve been thinking about going back through my Flickr photos and releasing some of them under an attribute CC license. Previously, the photo on the left was picked to represent Sir Harold Kroto by someone on Wikipedia partly because it was available under a CC license. (Wow… It still is?)

The quandary is more what should license?

Everything?

Some of the specific kinds like flowers or places?

Should I even bother?

Jun

14

Nature Photography Day

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June 15th is Nature Photography Day (and Father’s Day).

  • Purple ConeflowerTake your kids and grandkids on a nature trek and give them a single-use camera to use. Then print some of their photos and present them, in a mat or frame, to those young photographers.
  • Pick something in nature that you’ve never photographed before, and then make plans to photograph that subject on June 15.
  • Select a subject in nature that is small or common and thus easily overlooked. Then photograph it in a way to make the ordinary seem extraordinary.
  • Look for and photograph something that detracts from the beauty in nature - images that show how human beings sometimes adversely affect our environment.

Too bad June 14th is Free Day in the Parks for Georgia State Parks.

My photos will be tagged “Nature Photography Day” on Flickr.

(Photo is my Purple Coneflower picture hosted on Flickr.)

Apr

7

FBI Investigates Legal Activity Also

Filed Under Gov't & Politics, Photography | 1 Comment

One of the reasons my photos sets are more full of flowers than buildings is people don’t call the FBI over pictures of flowers. While it is perfectly legal to take pictures of buildings from public spaces, it makes “victims” nervous. No one cares about flowers. I can take all the pictures I want without uncomfortable encounters.

Of course, unless my airline ticket is purchased by a government, I consistently get extra screening. It is a fact of life of neither looking African American, Native American, Caucasian, Asian, or Hispanic. Because look like an other, people put me in the extra screening list just in case.

A local student had to sit down with an FBI agent to “prove” he did not look Middle Eastern after photographing chicken rendering plants. Security of the plants called the local police who called the FBI. What would have happened to Jim if he had looked Middle Eastern? Would he have been arrested for doing something perfectly legal?

This is choice from the article:

Filson told Diffly that this is America and he should do what he wants, but when someone looks different in a post-Sept. 11, 2001 world, police may be called.

By the way, police officers arrest photographers who take pictures of them in the middle of an arrest.

Abuse?

EDIT: I almost forgot. A Georgia Tech student from Pakistan was detained for taking video of a building. This student also visited Pakistan and made statements which could easily sound threatening.

Apr

6

Watermarks

Filed Under Computers, Photography | 3 Comments

So far I have either been oblivious or lucky. Some people like my pictures which could mean they are downloading them and even representing them as their own. No amount of HTML or JavaScript technology can prevent this. Even watermarks have questionable efficacy as people get better.

Google’s Picasa is my current image editor. With it, I am able to manipulate photographs easily prior to posting them online. For everything it does, Picasa does a fantastic job. One of two things* it lacks is adding a watermark. If it automatically did this at the time a photo was saved, then I would definitely be a happy user. Maybe it will hit the features of Picasa 3?

Years ago, I knew how to do add a nice watermark in seconds with Photoshop 6 and 7. Over the last hour or so I have been playing with GIMP to accomplish the same. This has been slow going. First, in GIMP 2.2.3, the software crashed each time I opened the text tool. Now that I am on 2.4.5, the text tool works. Second, I have not found anything similar to the hand tool.

I followed a GIMP watermarking tutorial for one as it was better detailed than another I attempted to follow and was frustrated at not being able to find what it told me to use.

So, I am curious…. What do you use for watermarking your images?

* The other is splicing together multiple images.

Jan

27

Shooting on the Run

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Do you have a camera that you take everywhere? My Canon SD800 IS (Elph)

This digital point and click camera does well for every day use. In the winter, it fits in my coat pockets very easily. In the summer, it fits in my cargo or carpenter shorts’ pockets. I have it so often, others expect me to have and are disappointed the few times I fail to have it on my person.

I do have a great backpack for my Canon Rebel XT which also carries my work laptop. For periods, I do use it. Maybe the strap on the other backpack breaking is a sign?

Dec

24

Reflecting on Traffic

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Reflecting on Traffic

Originally uploaded by Ezra F

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Nov

9

CC License For No Political Use?

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Will It Hold? Its interesting… Rob of Blue Sunbelt is using one of my photos to represent Georgia. It is one of my favorite photos of Grassy Pond near the Georgia-Florida border. My first thought was actually, “There is non-commercial use for Creative Commons. Why not a non-political use?” Not that it would have helped. This particular photo does not have a CC license which allows others to use it. Don’t worry, Rob, I probably will not start a lawsuit over this misuse. Though, how do you teach people to behave?

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Nov

5

This is the Best There Is?

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I cringe every time I see this Sir Harold Kroto Wikipedia article.

The photo is one I took. So, its awesome someone would use it, but there isn’t a better one? Maybe the reason they used mine is because I offered stuff at the time with attribution through the Creative Commons license? Someone needs to take a 10x better photo and release it under CC so Sir Harold Kroto can get a better picture on Wikipedia.

Aug

30

Amy’s Orchid Close Up

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Amy’s Orchid Close UP II, originally uploaded by Ezra F.

Aug

4

Orange Moon

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Orange Moon, originally uploaded by Ezra F.

Got out of Bourne Ultimatum and saw this to the East. Raced home and climbed up the nearby hill to take some shots.

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