Photography

During the UGA vs. Arizona State game, a number of us who post on pictures of Athens, GA on Flickr met to hang out and shoot. With just seven of us there, we were able to stay as one group and get shots of stuff and each other. I enjoyed meeting new peoole with similar interests.

The photographers who showed:

• Amy
• Bill
• Dan
• Elizabeth
• Natalie
• Tom

Got some pictures down at the botanical garden today. Reviewed a few and posted them over at Freelove Photography (tagged Insect-ival). I’ll get everything on Flickr eventually.

Insect-ival was cute. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but 400+ screaming kids wasn’t it. The best part was the butterfly release where the few stragglers who could not escape the kids who got to play with them. 

Saw a familiar face I had only seen from afar wielding two SLRs and a utility photograper’s belt. I have yet to sink that far down the photography rabbit hole. Only got his first name, but I think this is his blog: fotodave. Amazing stuff!

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?

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

• Take 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.)

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.

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.

So, you want to know who I am…. Hopefully you are in it for the long haul so you will post some comments, drop me some email (sneezypb at the most popular free email sites like GMail), subscribe to my blog.

Click for larger…

Am I my job? In that case, I could say I am a Database Administrator. Many of you probably don’t even know what that means. That’s okay, I’m not sure it means much. LOL Mainly I work with Blackboard Vista and ensure to the health of the software. My kicks come from taking something nebulous and determining scope and solution to the issue. The GeorgiaVIEW project has grown one of the largest implementations of Blackboard Vista world wide. Previously, at Valdosta State University, I worked with Vista, Luminis, Banner, Apache, and web design.

Am I my hobbies? In that case, I could say I am a computer geek, an amateur photographer, a bookworm, a blogger, or a social network junkie.

Am I my list of friends? Certainly, I don’t have an extraordinary EQ, so the huge list of contacts should not be interpreted as my list of friends. Yes, I know lots and lots of people. I just don’t know them well. Do check out my blogroll. Those are all exceptional people who in some shape or form impact my opinions.

I use a Canon Digital Rebel XT and Canon Power-Shot SD800 IS (Elph) digital cameras. The Elph goes everywhere with me. The Rebel I break out for special events. One can find more about my cameras and lenses in my profile at Flickr.

My Digital Footprint:

• Blogs:
  • Rants, Raves, and Rhetoric Version 4 - This one.
  • Ezra - Was main blog for a time. Mainly keep it up as some friends blog there “Friends Only” on LiveJournal.
  • Voice on Xylene - Hosted on Vox, a competitor to LJ and Blogger. Pretty much unused.
  • Sneezy Speaks - Hosted on Blogger, another competitor to LJ and Vox.
  • Technorati -Technorati Reactions - RRRv4
• Books
  • Goodreads - More social. Compare books is kind of cool.
  • Google Books - This one provides great details on the books. Made from an export of Goodreads.
  • LibraryThing - Lots of detail about books, authors, and users.
• Bookmarks
  • Del.icio.us
• Microblogs / Nanoblog
  • Friendfeed
  • Jaiku
  • Plurk
  • Pownce
  • 
• Music
  • Last.fm Music
• Photography
  • My Flickr - Initially just photos. As I’ve gotten more into photography, its come along nicely and perhaps has the more interesting stuff.
  • Freelove Photography
• Social
  • 
  • LinkedIn
  • Mashable
  • Myspace
  • Plaxo
• Travel
  • 43Places - Where I have been and wish to go.
• Video
  • YouTube Videos

A more comprehensive “About Me” page. I’m not for hire. This especially goes for snooping folks from Blackboard, Inc.!!