Photografr.com

Carlos Miller spent a night in jail for taking photographs of police officers against theit wishes.

This kind of story no longer surprises me. Police departments in the US and UK seem to have lost the plot in the face of terrorism “threats”. This is the sort of thing that we used to chastise the old Eastern Block countries for. Whatever happened to our civil liberties? Where do we draw the line?

How long until journalists and writers face the same treatment?

The most humiliating part of my arrest was not necessarily the way the five Miami police officers slammed me down on the hard sidewalk and bashed my forehead against the concrete. Nor was it the way they tightened the handcuffs on me until they cut off the circulation in my wrists. Nor was it the way one officer twisted my right wrist backwards until I yelled out in pain. Nor was it the way an officer threatened to taze me if I did not shut my mouth.

It wasn’t even the way the sergeant taunted me at the precinct by saying, “I don’t know what police department you’re used to dealing with, but this is Miami PD and we don’t put up with that kind of crap here.”

No, the most humiliating part of my arrest was when I was ordered into a small dark room at the Miami-Dade County Jail and ordered to drop my pants, bend over and spread my cheeks while a jail guard with a flashlight ensured that I was not smuggling any contraband into the jail.

Read the full story here.

Today Zooomr launched a nice batch of new features, and tidied up their interface into the bargain.

The Discover section now pages for pro users. That gives you five times more of the best photographs on Zooomr. The algorythm used to calculate this has always been very good, so this is a big bonus for those looking for great shots.

My favourite new feature is Undiscovered. This throws up great shots from people you haven’t had any contact with on Zooomr. Great for finding something new.

Zooomr will now also give awards to the most popular photos on the site. Photos with the most views or most favourites will automatically get an award icon to the right of the photo.

Nice work from the Zooomr team. I’m assured that there will be even more new features in the near future.

It seems that a week can’t go by these days without another story of a photographer being abused by somebody in uniform.

A news photographer left his camera running whil he was attacked by an Albuquerque Police Department officer…and was then arrested. The video, which can be seen here, was then broadcasted unedited.

APD say they are going ahead and pressing charges against the unfortunate photographer, and will review the video in the mean time.

Fellow photographer, Jeremy Brooks has been assaulted by a man in the street for taking photographs in the street. Quoting Jeremy from his blog;

This guy was on the corner of Stockton and Columbus in San Francisco yelling at a homeless man. Anger, conflict, drama — sounds like a great shot to me. I crossed the street but was unable to get anything interesting, since I only had my 50mm lens on the camera and I was just too far away.

However, Mr. Angry Overreaction Man decided that he now had a problem with me. He confronted me, demanding my camera. Of course, I refused. He got in my face and started threatening me, telling me that I cannot take his photo without his permission. I told him that yes, in fact, I can. He then walked up and bumped into me, trying to act tough. I told him that one more touch and I would call the police.

You can read the full story on Jeremy’s blog.

It’s great that Jeremy had the knowledge and strength of character to stand up for his rights as a photographer, but not everybody can do the same. When you go taking photographs in the street, be fully aware of your rights in your country. If somebody confronts you, be polite but firm and try to stand your ground. If the situation gets dangerous, bail and call the police. Only then will people realise this behavior is unacceptable.

Digg this story so Jeremy’s tale is heard.

Photo by Jeremy Brooks

I’ve spent the last few hours favouriting a big batch of photos on Flickr using social aggregation site, FriendFeed.

In the past few days FriendFeed has added a feature to show photographs that users have favourited as well as those that have been uploaded. It’s a brilliant way to find great new photos outside of my own circle of friends.

If you haven’t signed up to FriendFeed yet, get on the bandwagon and join in. It’s my social network of choice these days. When you do, add me as a contact.

Click here to see the exclusive Flickr feed from FriendFeed. You can also do the same with Zooomr photographs, though they don’t currently include favourited shots as of yet.

I love the service that these guys are providing. I look forward to seeing what you guys are uploading and favouriting too. See you there.

If you can’t see the above video view it here.

Once again we are faced with another case of a photographer in the UK being treated like a criminal. This is now beginning to make my blood boil. It seems the only cameras accepted in this country are those with CCTV written on them.

For more on this particular case take a look here.

I think it’s about time all our UK readers sent a wee email to their local MP or MSP letting them know of their concerns on this issue and again for every occasion they get been stopped, hassled, detained or assaulted for taking photographs in a public place.

We should not let this lie.

UPDATE: There is a Downing Street petition here, asking the Prime Minister to clarify the laws surrounding photography in public places. If you are a UK citizen, make sure you put your name to it.

[via Photodoto]

Don’t forget that tomorrow, Sunday 17th February, is the Old Aberdeen Photowalk.

We will meet at the Bobbin Mill at 1pm for a bite to eat and a drink. If you’re not up for some food, we will meet at the front door of the Bobbin, and at 2pm we’ll head out and explore Old Aberdeen as well as the more modern architecture of Aberdeen University. We’ll take a walk through Seaton Park, and we may head down to the Brig O’ Balgownie. I’m told there is a troll guarding the bridge, so we may give it a miss depending on the mood of the group.

I think we will be finished about 4pm. It’s not a long walk, but I would imagine the time will be taken up looking through lenses and swapping tips.

Please don’t let lack of photography gear or knowledge stop you from coming along. This is a catch-all event, and everybody can learn something new. I’m not a great photographer myself. The reason I’m organising this is to get some tips from others.

It would be really handy if you could take a note of your Flickr/Zooomr/Ipernity pages as well as any photo blogs you have so that I can link to them in my round-up of the day for the blog. If you’re going to share your shots on a photo sharing site, please tag them with the following:

photowalk:aberdeen=20080217
upcoming:event=419110
photowalking02172008

It looks like the weather is going to be sunny, but in Aberdeen this time of year that also means cold. Dress appropriately. We don’t want anybody falling foul of the elements.

By my reckoning there should be about a dozen people coming along, which should make for some good craic. The Upcoming.org page for this event is here. It would be really helpful if you could sign up there.

See you there!

Photo by Prestwick

I’ve been looking for a better way to geotag my photographs for a long time. I currently use Picasa and Google Earth to get the info into my pics, but it’s a pain in the backside and something which I’ve always wished could be automatic.

The Photo GPS from JOBO looks to be a pretty elegant solution to this. It sits in the hot shoe of your camera, and uses GPS technology (of course) to tag where you take your shots. When you sync up back with your computer, it adds that information to your exif data. Apparently it works with RAW as well as .jpg which is excellent news.

The Photo GPS should be released at some point in the summer and cost around $160 in the US. I’ve not yet been able to find any details on a UK release or price.

I’ve been posting my 2008 Challenge efforts over at nixonbyname.com, my personal blog. As a new dad, I’ve been finding it difficult to get time plan my shots, and these have all been taken while walking the wee one. But this is a really forgiving challenge. Great if you don’t have a lot of time on your hands.

I’ve noticed that so far I’ve only taken photographs of ‘things’. While things are great, it’s people who make up a community. In the next few weeks I’m going to try and force myself to take more photos of people to correct the balance.

If you are not yet taking part in the 2008 Challenge, it’s not too late to join in. Just tag one photo of your community each week with ‘2008challenge’ and they will show up on the radar. Also approaching is the February Challenge, a Colour Theory based effort. Well worth a look.

Zooomr is currently going through an upgrade so expect to see one or two glitches here on Photografr.com, as served pictures go through some downtime.

You should expect to see the revamped site back up by the end of this week. It’s a big task as servers are moved from the US to Japan. There are a number of new features on the way too, so it will be worth it.

Thanks for your patience.