Pretty Lady

I turned 40 yesterday. A quick look around the dinner table – my parents, my wife and kids, my sister and her family – I reflected on what accomplishments are truly important.

These are mine.

Ever want to swim with sharks? If you were in on Saturday’s Tampa Tweetup you might have gotten the chance.

Mommy Musings and David Risley tell the story. So does Fox 13 news.

UPDATE: Forgot to link to my pictures, on Flickr.

Pool warrior

Originally uploaded by Mike’s Flickr Account.

“Today is a good day to sunscreen my scalp.”

There is unmistakable irony in having Samuel Alito’s views on racial and gender equality questioned by a group as diverse as the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Thanks to Jon Stewart for reminding me of the Committee’s commitment to a diverse America.

We are proud to announce the birth of Nathaniel Dennis Wasylik, born at 8:17 pm on Wednesday, December 28.

He arrived with emphasis, weighing in at 9 pounds, 7 ounces, and measuring 22 inches in length.

Mother and son are happy, healthy, and looking forward to coming home in a couple of days. Nate is also looking forward to meeting his big brother Alex.

It’s a sign of the times when even your Christmas tree ornaments are at war.

I said then:

The Photographer’s Rights primer (or “Photographer’s Bust Card”) is making the rounds again thanks to Boing Boing.

I think it’s important to repeat the warning from last year: this card covers only the act of taking the picture and has nothing to do with the photographer’s rights in publishing the picture. If you’re taking pictures of someone else’s kids, for example, get a model release or risk getting sued.

In light of the recent discussion about photographers pushing the limits, I thought it would be appropriate to revisit this yet again.

The actual download can be found at Bert Krages’ web site.

Last month, photographer Thomas Hawk thought he got a great deal on a camera through an online store. Turned out, the Brooklyn-based company was running a bait-and-switch scam. According to commenters, Hawk’s experience with Brooklyn-based bait and switch scams was not unique.

One enterprising soul decided to check out some of the online camera shops with addresses in the neighborhood. Over the course of his tour, which must have taken weeks, he found that many of these online retailers have less-than-savory brick and mortar locations:

Don Wiss took more than a hundred pictures of different retail outlets. While he was still on his journey, word began to spread.

A fellow getting out of his car saw me taking my camera out. After hearing my first name he knew exactly who I was! He didn’t want me to take the outside. It was just a plain ordinary warehouse.

Wiss got shots of the inside and the outside anyway.

If you’re ever considering buying a camera online, you might want to pop over to Wiss’s gallery and see if he’s got a listing for your store, so you have a better idea who you’re buying from. If it’s just a mail drop you might want to investigate further before risking a lot of cash.

Links to the Hawk story via boing boing and the Wiss gallery via Consumerist.

Tom points to the debate between Jeff Harrell and Derek Powazek about taking pictures in public places where they are supposedly prohibited. Jeff says:

Derek clearly sees this as an issue of civil rights; I see it as an issue of basic civility…. More and more, we’re hearing the “I’m going to do whatever I want, and asking me to stop is a violation of my God-given rights” idea being expressed, and that’s simply wrong. Life in a pluralistic society is about compromise; there are no absolute liberties. We all sacrifice some measure of our liberty in order to secure the benefits we gain from living together as a group. We get things like roads and schools and art and culture, but in return we have to accept some basic responsibilities. Like the responsibility to be civil toward each other.

Jeff argues that photographers foisting themselves where they are not wanted exercise bad manners and breach that civility he values so highly. Derek’s philosophy is one of civil liberties:

In a post 9/11 age of paranoia and suspicion, public photography is increasingly seen as threatening, or mistaken as criminal. And we here at JPG are sick of it. The theme [is] meant to remind everyone that amateur photographers are the documentarians of real life. People with cameras bear witness to the everyday dramas of ordinary people. We capture our world to help us understand it.

Neither side is absolutely right, but I think the truth is closer to Derek’s side than Jeff’s. Paparazzi who hound and harass well-known figures, even in public places, in order to get the front page picture for the glossy newsrag, may be exercising their civil rights but intrude into the rights of others to do so. In such a case, Jeff is right: don’t be an ass. But that’s not the point of the “Photography is not a Crime” event. Pictures of public places, public buildings, public landscapes and the like are fair game even in a compromise-dependent civil society.

Jeff’s foundational assumption is wrong. Just because someone puts up a sign or posts a security guard does not mean they have the right to prohibit photography, to confiscate cameras, or to destroy or delete pictures or film. Any idiot can have a policy, but civility doesn’t demand that we respect that policy if it’s wrong. Part of civility is that we shouldn’t post security guards to prevent public photography. Part of civility is not overreaching, not imposing your will where it doesn’t belong. Jeff’s theory of adulthood – “don’t be an ass” – applies equally to the picture takers and the picture banners.

Ultimately, civility demands that we put incivility in its place. Being an adult does not require us to be sheep. It requires us to take responsibility for our own actions and also for our freedoms. When those freedoms are unduly restricted, everyone loses. Not everyone answers the call to defend those freedoms, but everyone benefits from those who do. Our country was founded by people who risked their honor, their lives, their fortunes standing up to the world’s most powerful sovereign in the name of freedom.

Does taking a picture in the subway rise to that level? Only in the rarest of circumstances. But civil society is just a little bit poorer if no one goes for the shot when the shot is there.