Photography

Over at Gizmodo, Jack Loftus (if that is his real name) is getting all alarmed about people taking pictures in downtown Boston: It's totally legal and entirely creepy. A gaggle of gentlemen, armed with cameras and an absence of shame, have taken residence in Boston's Downtown Crossing snapping what they claim are artful "street photography" pictures of everyday people. Right … [Read more...] about Sketchy “Writer” Posts Dumb Commentary

As has always been the rule, if you are in a location legally, you can still take pictures of almost anything you can see from there, including federal buildings. And now, here's an official bulletin from the Department of Homeland Security explaining it. I don't know it it will really help, or if it will just mark me as a smartass, but I'm going to download a copy and keep it … [Read more...] about Photography of Public Buildings Still Legal

I saw this photo of lightning striking the Statue of Liberty and was impressed. It's a really cool photo taken by photographer Jay Fine, but what impressed me was that it took less than two hours and only 80 shots before he got the photo he wanted. As someone who has spent many hours in the early morning, on the coldest day of the year in Chicago, getting frostbite on a finger, … [Read more...] about Lightning Photo

A friend of mine sent me a link to a New York Times piece by Randy Kennedy about photographer Mitch Epstein. He's doing a series of photographs about America's energy policies, photographing things like gas stations and power plants. As you might expect these days, he gets stopped by police a lot. I agree with my friend's assesment: I remember stories about such things in the … [Read more...] about Photography Is Not a Crime

The New York Times has up a story about distracted driving and cell phones. I only skimmed the story---I'm skeptical about the issue, but I don't know enough to really have an opinion---because I was looking at the picture. Radley Balko had pointed it out in a passing comment: I'm trying to figure out how the photo for this NY Times scare story on distracted driving was taken. … [Read more...] about Story of a Photo – Texting While Driving