Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection

Mostly Peaceful Protest in Oakland Turns Violent

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Hawk) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 07:10:00 +0000

Earlier this evening I attended a peaceful protest over the death of Oscar Grant. The protest was large, with almost 1,500 participants and seemed very organized. Speakers advocated protesting against the killing of Oscar Grant but urged protesters to do this peacefully. The protest ran from 4pm to 7pm.

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums spoke at the protest as did hip hop star Too Short. The protest, which started at Oakland City Hall, marched from City Hall down to the Alameda County Court House where protesters demanded the resignation of Oakland District Attorney Tom Orloff. Several more speeches were given down at the Courthouse, including one by Oscar Grant's football coach.

After the speeches at the Courthouse, the protest again marched back to City Hall where the protest continued for about another hour.

After 7pm about 100 or so of the original protesters were still hanging around 14th and Broadway and there are reports of trash can fires and broken windows in that area. Bart was also briefly closed while the rioting was going on. According to KTVU, 18 people were arrested including 2 for possession of molatov cocktails. I suspect the violence may still be going on in downtown Oakland as I still hear helicopters hovering over head.

Most all of the retail stores down in the protest area had supportive Oscar Grant signs in their windows. Several were boarded up in anticipation of tonight's violence.

Yesterday former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle was arrested for the New Year's Day shooting of Oscar Grant.

If you'd like to see my set of images from tonight's protest you can see them all here.

Want to Know Why People Don't Respect Police? Read the Comments in This Cop Forum on the Oscar Grant Shooting

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Hawk) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:22:00 +0000

I have a number of friends who are cops, good friends and even family members. I respect the police mostly. I respect how hard their job is and that they sacrifice a great deal to serve and protect the public. But there are always bad apples out there and I was extremely disappointed to read comments in a police officer internet forum today on the Oscar Grant shooting.

Here are some choice posts:

"Any number of reasons that he may have shot.....you can see from the video that there is a struggle before the shot is fired (even before the officer pulls his weapon).....the suspect may have reached underneath him, leading the shooter to believe that he was attempting to retrieve a weapon..... There isnt enough info to call it a bad shoot.......not by a long shot..... btw....saying 'liberal media' is redundant.......esp. in SF area......." by Forum Member LA DEP who says he's an officer for the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department.

Forum member Brenden then adds:

"I don't know why people worry themselves with such things. The people that get shot are the people who put lives at risk. That cop probably saved the taxpayers over 200K in Courtfee's and other convictions anyways. Maybe he even saved someone from getting killed."

jb5722, who describes himself as a sworn police officer from North Carolina writes: "I would say that I'm sure the officer had his reasons for firing his weapon," after adding earlier that if a reporter's mouth is open they are lying.

Tex4720, who describes himself as 23 year veteran patrol sergeant from Texas, speculates that: "the guy may have repeatedly told the officers he was going to shoot them and then reached under his body. Or a million different things that would prove in the end that this was a righteous shoot."

One member, scratched 13, who describes himself as a police officer from the South goes so far as to suggest that the video of the incident may have been faked.

People wonder why some people hate the police. They wonder why people don't respect the police. They wonder why protesters around the Bay Area have been protesting with chants of "F*** the police," for the past week. All I can say is that asinine cops making comments like the ones above in a public forum are as big a part of the problem as anything. How a cop behaves in online forums and the words they choose can be amplified and magnified.

As much as many of these comments made by cops are offensive, just the overall tone of a forum like this troubles me. Referring to shootings as "righteous," claiming that taxpayers are saved court fees when someone is killed, even the signatures that many of these cops choose to use as their taglines (Fear not the night. Fear that which walks the night. And *I* am that which walks the night.) just goes to show me that much of the hatred towards the police is due at least in part to the attitudes that comes from the cops themselves.

You can read more comments in this thread but the overall tone is that the news media and reporters (especially in the Bay Area) suck and mostly people trying to somehow defend the actions of Johannes Mehserle, the cop who shot Oscar Grant (and the cop who was arrested for the murder of Oscar Grant yesterday).

Interesting to read what this shooting looks like from a police perspective.

By the way, this same police forum has been discussing my recent stop by the Long Beach Harbor Patrol while shooting last month here. It's unfortunate for me to read comments like this one: "Point is, if they ask you to move, then move. Why do people have to be so annoying about minor stuff. I am sure there are tons of other things you can take pictures of. If they say it's against the law, then say ok and move along."

Update: It seems that forums.officer.com has now deleted in it's entirety the post about my recent run in with the Long Beach Harbor Patrol. Why does it not surprise me that a site like this one would so easily censor the threads in their forums?

Sarah Palin is Really a Man

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Hawk) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 14:22:00 +0000

This One Will Bring You Love

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Hawk) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 14:21:00 +0000

Last Night's San Francisco Oscar Grant Protest

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Hawk) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 14:44:00 +0000

About 100 demonstrators protested in the streets of San Francisco last night in San Francisco's first major Oscar Grant protest. Oscar Grant was the 22-year old man who was killed and shot in the back by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle early New Year's day at the Fruitvale BART station with the shooting heavily seen afterwards in videos around the internet.

The protest was mostly peaceful in contrast to last week's more violent protest that took place in Oakland.

The protesters began protesting at around 5:45pm at the Civic Center BART station and then marched from there down to the Powell Street BART station and then downtown around near the Sutter and Montgomery intersection. About 50 or so San Francisco Police Officers monitored the protest and accompanied the march down Market Street. The local news crews were out as well with cameras and microphones in the protest.

Except for a very small amount of graffiti that I saw spray painted downtown and a reported trash can fire, there were no other incidents of violence accompanying this protest. The speakers at the protest kept encouraging violence in their speeches though telling people that they needed to "tear s*** up," but the crowd seemed to lack the momentum that turned Oakland violent last week. No one was arrested in this protest.

The protest was promoted earlier in the day on Indy Bay with the tagline, "The kids in Oakland know how to party. Let's show them they are not alone."

The protest did not seem very well organized and except for a small battery powered bull horn which kept losing power, there did not seem to be anyone really in charge.

A few of the comic moments for me came as the protesters passed the bull horn around to each other sort of randomly. In one case I think one of the guys who got a turn on the bullhorn wasn't even part of the original protest. Before the protest had even started he seemed to be just hanging around Civic Center telling anyone who would listen about problems with his wife. When he got the bull horn I'm not even sure he knew what the protest was about, but he did get an opportunity to rant a bit about his wife.

Another comic moment for me came when the protesters seemed to get into some sort of an argument with each other over the fact that some of the protesters were wearing bandanas over their face to mask their faces. One of the protesters challenged the protesters wearing bandanas to remove them from their faces while a protester with a bandana on tried to explain why she had hers on handing out a leaflet explaining it.

It seemed early on that some of the protesters were trying to make the protest about other things complaining about Palestinian occupation and homelessness in San Francisco. At one point a protester shouted into the bull horn. "How many of you are homeless and living in Golden Gate Park?" No one raised their hand and so he said, "ok, well a lot of people are," and went on with his speech.

A few of the protesters said that they knew Oscar Grant. Another gave a speech saying that his best friend had been killed by the cops. Mostly though they just shouted and chanted "f*** the police," "we are all Oscar Grant," and "no justice, no peace."

The protest seemed to gain the most momentum down around Market and Sansome Street when the protesters took a turn into downtown and the police on motorcycles couldn't easily follow them down a one-way street. The protesters then headed up Bush Street where the SFPD sort of cut the protesters in half completely blocking off the intersection of Sutter and Montgomery in riot gear for about 15 minutes. After that the protest just seemed to dissolve into thin air. A few folks headed back up Market Street but mostly people just went on their way.

I put together a set of 50 photos from last night's protest that you can see here.

Turn the World Around

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Hawk) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 14:23:00 +0000

JPG Magazine Getting Closer to Selling

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Hawk) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 17:18:00 +0000

Laura Brunow Miner, JPG Magazine's Editor-in-Chief sent the following email out this morning updating people on what's going on with JPG Magazine:

We couldn't ask for a better community. In the week or so since our last email, the outpour of support has exceeded our wildest expectations. Your efforts, such as starting savejpg.com, writing blog posts, commenting on Twitter and Flickr, and generally making your voices heard, have provided exciting new opportunities for us.

We're thrilled to say that because of you, we have multiple credible buyers interested in giving JPG a home. We will be keeping the site up after all, and hope to have a final update in the next week or so on who the acquirer will be. Thank you for making all of this possible.

Laura Brunow Miner
Editor in Chief

Not sure who the possible buyer might be, but several names have been brought up recently. One possible suitor mentioned in the past has been Flickr, but I highly doubt this would happen. According to Heather Champ, who works at Flickr and is also a co-founder of JPG Magazine, Flickr "are not and never have been interested in bidding on JPG."

My 20,000th Photo Uploaded to Flickr

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Hawk) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 01:43:00 +0000

The photo above marks my 20,000th upload to Flickr. My first photo uploaded to Flickr was uploaded on January 2, 2005, four years ago. Over the past four years, sharing photos online has redefined how I view my own work. I have found inspiration from other photographers daily and I've met some truly, truly amazing artists, photographers and people participating in this new world of social photography along the way.

Thanks to everyone who over the last four years has stopped by my photos and left a note, a comment, a fave -- touch from one human being to another. Your testimonials, your emails, your blog comments, spending a few hours walking around San Francisco or Oakland or Berkeley or Hollywood or Sacramento or Las Vegas or Portland or Seattle or New York or New Orleans or anyplace else our paths have crossed, in real life or online have held great meaning for me. I've appreciated the feedback, I've appreciated the friendship, I've appreciated the support. It's made me a better photographer. It's made me a better person.

20,000 uploads to Flickr represents 2% of a goal that I've come to define as part of this process of learning about myself and my photography.

I'd like to publish one million photographs online before I die.

This means that I'm planning on shooting, processing, and publishing photographs every single day for the rest of my life. It means that I have to live a long time and be careful to maintain a pace that makes this likely based on human life expectancy. It means living my life with a camera constantly by my side. Permanently attached to my being. Framing my world hour by hour as I move about this planet. Every day a new opportunity to find and present new beauty to the entire connected world.

I'm optimistic about what the future holds. A phrase I've repeated often is that the best photographs in the world have yet to be taken. This phrase isn't meant to discount the amazing work of so many great photographers of yesteryear that have paved the way for the world of photography today. Rather, it's meant in a spirit of hope. Hope that tomorrow will bring still more opportunities to capture the human condition and the beauty around us. Hope in an evolutionary creative vision that lives in all of us and that is constantly finding new ways to express things artistically. Hope and a belief that in technological advances are born even greater ways to help us achieve our artistic passions.

And on the continuing ride that the next 40 years or so may have in store for me, I'm excited about how much of my life will overlap with the people that I continue to have the good fortune to run across in this world. As much as my photography allows me to constantly interact with people in the offline world, friends and strangers alike, as big a part of that overlap, at least for me, comes from this great big world of online photo sharing that we all share with such generosity.

Photographers Criminalised as Police 'Abuse' Anti-Terror Laws

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Hawk) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:25:00 +0000

Photographers criminalised as police 'abuse' anti-terror laws - Home News, UK - The Independent:

"'The car skidded to a halt like something out of Starsky & Hutch and this officer jumped out very dramatically and said 'what are you doing?' I told him I was photographing the building and he said he was going to search me under the Anti-Terrorism Act,' he recalled.

For Powell, this brush with the law resulted in five hours in a cell after police seized the lock-blade knife he uses to sharpen his pencils. His release only came after the intervention of the local MP, Simon Hughes, but not before he was handcuffed and his genetic material stored permanently on the DNA database."

More madness from the Photo Police. Photography is not a crime.

Thanks, Gary!

Netflix Watch Now Outages Hit Saturday Night

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Hawk) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:24:00 +0000

I was disappointed last night to spend over two hours, including three customer service calls (holding up to 20 minutes in one case), in order to try and get Netflix's "Watch Now" service to work on my XBox 360.

On the first customer service call the rep suggested that my internet connection wasn't fast enough. But with a UVerse fiber connection (and a speed test to verify) this was not the problem. On the second customer service call, the rep had me uninstall my XBox 360 memory files on my XBox 360 and reinstall them.

After about an hour and a half of trying to troubleshoot why my programming would just stop, I went to Twitter and searched for Netflix and found that there were several other people Twittering about having problems with "Watch Now" last night as well.

When I called Netflix the third time they confirmed that they were having problems with their watch now servers last night.

Overall I've been pretty happy with the Netflix Watch Now service so far. Fast forwarding and rewinding are a bit of a chore, but other than that, once you're watching your show it's seemed to work pretty well.

Having their service go out for much of last night (and a Saturday night at that) is a huge fail though. If Netflix wants people to seriously consider their service as an alternative to cable/satellite (and the market for Netflix is huge if you think about them that way), then they need to do a better job both with their main streaming service as well as their customer service when their service fails. Particularly being 20 minutes into a TV show and at a very tense point of the show, to have Netflix hang for two hours and fail (finally giving up in frustration) doesn't score any points with trying to convince the wife on why this service is better than cable/satellite service.

Hopefully last night's experience won't be a repeated one for Netflix and hopefully it's not just the tip of the iceberg in terms of their problems in meeting viewer demand for streaming content.

One Blogger's Perspective of the Oakland Riots

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Hawk) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:35:00 +0000

fem.men.ist: Reportback From The Oscar Grant Protests/Riots.

I've been pretty carefully following various news reports and blog reports following the Oakland protest and riots this week. I thought this post by Richard at fem.men.ist was a particularly well written heartfelt first hand report of the scene on Wednesday night.

"So yeah, at this point I think i'm about ready to head back home now. I see friends Bea and Inez, and tell them that I have seen enough for tonight, and that i'm going home. A young sista overhears me, and says with a half joking voice "you should give me your candle then." I turn and look at her.
"Do you really want my candle?" I can see that she has been crying all night.
"Yeah."
"Blessings." I reach out and give it to her, and she looks into my eyes and smiles in a way that warmed my whole soul."

The Angry Whopper, Preferred by Angry Rioters Everywhere

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Hawk) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:14:00 +0000

The Angry Whopper, Flavor You'll Burn For.

Saw this advert in the BART stations and on BART trains this morning. Something tells me this might not be the most appropriate advert campaign for Burger King to be running in the BART system right now given the rioting that's been going on in Oakland and the anger that people have directed at BART.

Ironically, in the riots from the night before last, the McDonalds in downtown Oakland got trashed and had their windows broken while the Burger King on Broadway seemed to get by unscathed.

Quieter Night in Oakland Last Night

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Hawk) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:50:00 +0000

I spent a bit of yesterday afternoon shooting around Downtown Oakland and stayed down there until about 6pm or so. Things seemed much more peaceful, but there was still a lot of tension in the air. The above photo was taken from a group of peaceful protesters near the corner of Broadway and 14th Street.

A lot of police where still out and stores were boarding up their storefronts with plywood in anticipation of another night of violence when I left downtown. KTVU reports that later another smaller protest was out with people throwing some trash cans into Broadway and more arrests were made, but that last night was not near as violent as the night before.

From KTVU on last night:

"Police in riot gear shut down Broadway and other surrounding streets for a time after about 50 protesters tried to stop cars, threw trash cans into the street and lit several small fires while protesting the fatal New Year's Day shooting of 22-year-old Oscar Grant by transit officer Johannes Mehserle at the Fruitvale BART station.

Officers in riot gear moved in to disperse the crowd and detained or arrested several people.

But the protests were calmer than the previous night when some 120 people were arrested following a rampage that damaged about 300 businesses and numerous cars."

I suspect things may quiet down a bit for a while on the streets of Oakland, but I do worry that once former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle is brought to trial for the killing of Oscar Grant, that far more violent riots will erupt if he is acquitted of murder. I think the verdict of a trial like that will be watched very closely like the Rodney King verdict was, with people ready to take to the streets again if they don't get the outcome that they want. I also think convicting an on duty cop of murder will be a very difficult thing for prosecutors to do.

Marc Silber Interviews Pro Photographer Chase Jarvis for New Photography Video Series Photo Show

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Hawk) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:29:00 +0000

Photographer Marc Silber has a new photography related video series out called Photo Show. The show's tagline is: "Interviews, Tips and Insight from the World's Best Photographers," and he's got an interview up today with Seattle based pro photographer Chase Jarvis that is well worth watching. You might remember Chase from the promo video that Nikon did with him last Fall showcasing their D90 camera, one of the first digital SLRs to shoot video.

I'm really excited to see Marc out there doing a photography video show because I don't think that there are enough photography related video shows on the web. The quality of his show is very professional and he's getting some great guests.

Marc and his crew recently filmed an interview with me on San Francisco's Baker Beach shooting the Golden Gate Bridge that should be up at some point in the future as well. Marc, Robert Scoble, and I also went up to Yosemite last year and got to spend some time with Ansel Adams' son Michael. Marc also has a video of his interview with Michael Adams about his dad's photography here.

Congrats on the great interview Marc and looking forward to many great episodes of Photo Show in the month ahead.

If you want to subscribe to Marc's new video show and blog on photography via RSS you can do that here.

Oakland Riots

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Hawk) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 07:13:00 +0000

Oakland protester holds bottle. Many bottles were thrown at the police tonight.

I just came back from a few hours walking around downtown Oakland and taking photographs of the riots tonight. The rioting started after a planned protest earlier today over the recent shooting of Oscar Grant by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle.

Most of the rioting activity took place around downtown Oakland, near 14th and Broadway. I was also out back in 1992 during the Rodney King riots in San Francisco and these riots felt a lot like those but with what seemed like less looting. Mostly the rioters were vandalizing automobiles and storefronts. There were quite a few cars burned out. The Oakland PD was trying to get the burnt out cars off the streets as soon as they could. Many retail stores also had their windows broken and smashed. Many of the stores in downtown Oakland have metal bars on the windows and I didn't see anyone going into stores and looting.

After assembling around 14th Street and Jackson Street, the rioters headed back towards Broadway and City Hall. Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums came out and the rioters gathered around him on the City Hall steps as he pleaded for people not to be violent and tried to assure the crowd that he would do everything he could to ensure that justice would prevail in the case of the shooting. After speaking to the crowd for a while Dellums went back into City Hall and the rioters moved up towards Broadway. Police were in force surrounding the rioters in riot gear. When the crowd started throwing bottles at the police, some from balconies overhead, the police fired tear gas into the crowd. My eyes are still burning a bit from the tear gas, but it definitely dispersed that crowd.

Man posing in front of a burnt out car who wanted me to take a photograph of him.

But from there the crowd would seem to just keep moving down one street, up another. Smashing things as they went on their way. There were also smaller groups of 5 or 10 people at a time apart from the main crowd vandalizing things.

Photograph of police helicopter shining spotlight on rioters over the City of Oakland, photo by my brother.

The people in the crowd were very angry. They were definitely taunting the police. Using expletives with them. Yelling at them. Calling them pigs.

Police helicopters are still and have been flying over the City of Oakland all night. I suspect that the rioting will continue on into the night and that these riots are not over yet.

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums Tries to Calm the Crowd.

BART suspended service at many of the BART stations as the crowd moved around Oakland.

I spent about two hours shooting the riots tonight downtown with my brother. Stupidly I parked my car near downtown. I thought I was far enough away from the riots, but the crowd was moving a lot and when I came back to my car I found that the car parked immediately behind mine had been burned out. Fortunately my car wasn't damaged, but I feel bad for all of the people who had their property damaged or destroyed in tonight's riots.

I fear that this is only the beginning of the rioting we may have in store for Oakland. Eventually this officer will be brought to trial and it may be very difficult to get a murder conviction for an on duty shooting. Anything short of a murder conviction however may result in even more devastating violence in Oakland.

I took my 10D out shooting tonight instead of my new 5D Mark II so the photos I took are a bit grainy, but I have a set up here on Flickr if you'd like to see them. My brother also has the set of photos he took tonight uploaded here.

Update: poppimple got a pretty good video showing the rioting here.

Update 2: The SF Chronicle has a pretty good wrap up on the rioting.

MP Stopped by Police on Suspicion of Being a Terrorist - for taking photos of a cycle path | Mail Online

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Hawk) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:21:00 +0000

MP stopped by police on suspicion of being a terrorist - for taking photos of a cycle path | Mail Online

"A Tory MP was stopped and searched by police on suspicion of being a terrorist after taking photos of a cycle path, he revealed yesterday.

Andrew Pelling was taking the pictures to highlight a 'long-neglected bicycle and pedestrian route' in his Central Croydon constituency to Parliamentary colleagues.

But as the cycle path was near the town's main train station, two police officers stopped him on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack.

Even when Mr Pelling, 48, showed the officers his House of Commons pass and explained what he was doing, they insisted on searching his bag.

After finding nothing of interest they sent the MP on his way. A police spokesman confirmed the December 30 incident, saying: 'The officer conducted a stop-and-search - taking into account the current terror threat - as he (Mr Pelling) was taking pictures in the vicinity of a major transport hub.' "

Thanks, David!

Ride Like the Wind

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Hawk) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 03:18:00 +0000

Indication

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Hawk) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:53:00 +0000

The Mechanics Institute Library, located at 57 Post Street in San Francisco, is the oldest library on the West Coast. It was started in 1854. Inside this spectacular library is a stunning spiral staircase definitely worth exploring.

My Initial Thoughts on the Canon 5D Mark II After 24 Hours

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Hawk) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:42:00 +0000

I spent yesterday afternoon out shooting with my new Canon 5D Mark II and these are my earliest thoughts. I'll probably do a series of short posts like this on the camera from time to time rather than any sort of formal review. I haven't even processed any photos from the new camera yet or played with it's video functionality so certainly more to come later.

The first thing I noticed about the new 5D is that it feels quieter to me. The sound of the shutter is very different than the old 5D, it sounds less mechanical and more muted. I like that.

The large LCD screen on the back of the camera is pretty cool. The photos feel really large as they display for the 2 seconds after you take a shot.

It is sooooooooo nice not to have to keep resetting my date/time over and over and over and over again. The internal battery on my old 5D died a while back and so every time I'd change batteries I'd have to reset the date and time. I tried taking the camera to a camera battery store but they didn't seem to have a battery that would work with my old 5D and I was too lazy to do the research to find the actual replacement.

I find that I'm taking less shots when I'm out shooting. I think it's more mental at this point but something about seeing only 250 or so shots on an 8 gig card makes me pause more when I decide whether or not to take a shot or how many to take. It's not just about the room on the card, in the back of my mind I'm also thinking about the fact that larger file sizes will just be all around more difficult to work with. They'll take longer to transfer to my Mac. They'll take up more space on my Mac's hard drive. Eventually they'll consume more space on my Drobo. Bigger files are likely going to be slower to work with in Lightroom, etc. I think that this is still mostly just an early mental thing going on in my head that should resolve itself in time. I did notice yesterday though that I took less photographs in four hours than I usually do and I seemed to think more about my shots. Who knows, maybe this is a good thing too.

I like the new menu on the Mark II better than the old 5D. It seems more intuitive and you scroll through the screens easier.

A few times while working with the camera I accidentally pushed the delete button when I meant to push the play button. The play and delete buttons are pretty close to each other. I'm not too worried about this because you have to confirm photo deletion but it seemed like maybe these two buttons should be further away from each other.

That's all for now. No real opinion on the image quality yet because I haven't processed any images from it. I'm heading out to shoot a bit more this afternoon with it and will continue to post thoughts on the camera as I think about them.

Flickr, Smugmug And Others Bidding To Buy JPG Magazine Says TechCrunch

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Hawk) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:53:00 +0000

Flickr, Smugmug And Others Bidding To Buy JPG Magazine

TechCrunch is reporting that Flickr, Smugmug, Alexander Muse, WordPress and apparently others (TechCrunch says 20 potential buyerys) have all been involved in a bidding war over JPG Magazine and reports that it looks like a transaction will close shortly.

Matt Mullenweg denies that WordPress has ever had any conversations about anything like this in the comments of the post.

Don MacAskill seems to suggest on Twitter that SmugMug was at least interested but that they're now unlikely to bid:

From Don:

"JPG Magazine may be saved! The other bidders have much deeper pockets, so we're unlikely to bid afterall, but if something happens.

We were going to turn JPG Magazine back over the community, try to run it at a small loss, and mostly do our best to keep it from extinction."

For what it's worth, I doubt that you'll see anyone acquire JPG Magazine for any serious money at all. JPG was a money losing proposition (unfortunately) and not very many people are going to be interested in a money losing magazine at this juncture in a recession.

Although JPG had an online presence, the online part of the business was pretty weak to start with. It really was the idea that you'd get published in a very polished magazine and get $100 that interested contributors more than the online side of the site.

Mike Arrington suggests that fans are going to want to see JPG go to Flickr. But I seriously doubt Flickr would buy JPG. First off, why would Yahoo want to part with cash?

Secondly, even if Flickr ran the print magazine JPG at a loss in order to enhance the cachet of Flickr, it could very seriously backfire on them. You can only print so many photographs in a magazine a month and everyone who submitted photos that got rejected would feel bad. There's enough bitching already around Flickr about who gets photos in "Explore" and who doesn't that I can't imagine an even more exclusive magazine distinction would do much for the competitive esprit de corps at the site.

Finally, if Flickr really wanted to do a magazine, well, they'd probably just do one and call it something like, well, Flickr. It's a better brand name and it's not like the JPG name carries some sort of magical cachet with photographers that a Flickr title wouldn't.

I just don't see it happening with Flickr.

Speaking of Halsey Minor, JPG's major investor, JPG employee Jason Defilippo didn't have very kind words for him according to one commenter Jack McGuire in the comments of the TechCrunch article. McGuire quotes Defilippo as twittering: "I loathe Halsey Minor. Billionaire douchebag. He killed 8020 along with Ron Palmeri. Brothers in douche."

Update #1: Alexander Muse adds a blog post about his offer to buy JPG here.

Update #2: In the comments section to this post JPG investor Ron Palmeri responds to Alexander Muse's offer as well as the comments made on Twitter by Jason Defilippo. He also reprints portions from an email where he says that JPG has 20 interested parties in the venture.

Update #3: Heather Champ (who works for Flickr/Yahoo) writes that "we (Flickr) are not and never have been interested in bidding on JPG. One shouldn't believe everything one reads on the internets."

Amtrak Photo Contestant Arrested by Amtrak Police in NYC's Penn Station

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Hawk) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:30:00 +0000

Amtrak photo contestant arrested by Amtrak police in NYC’s Penn Station

More absurdity from the anti-photography brigade via Carlos Miller. This time reportedly photographer Duane Kerzic was shooting in Penn Station and ended up getting arrested by Amtrak Police, handcuffed in a holding cell and accused of criminal trespassing... in a public train station?

Apparently Kerzic was trying to take photos specifically to win Amtrak's annual photo contest this week:

"“The only reason they arrested me was because I refused to delete my images,” Kerzic said in a phone interview with Photography is Not a Crime on Friday.

“They never asked me to leave, they never mentioned anything about trespassing until after I was handcuffed in the holding cell.”

In fact, he said, the only thing they told him before handcuffing him was that “it was illegal to take photos of the trains.”"

Another example of more rogue cops who think that photography is some sort of crime.

Kerzic has photographs he took of his wrists after being handcuffed here. Personally I'm not sure why cops should be allowed to handcuff photographers or any other law abiding citizen at all.

Thanks, Brad!

Thank You Helen Oster and Adorama, My Canon 5D, Mark II Arrives

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Hawk) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:37:00 +0000

I just spent a few minutes unboxing my new Canon 5D Mark II digital SLR that I bought from the good folks at Adorama.

I'm charging the battery on the puppy and will take it out this afternoon to play with it a bit.

I had a heck of a time getting my hands on one of these hot new cameras and while it's probably too late for any serious review, I'm sure I'll be posting my thoughts and reflections on the camera over the next few months here and various other places.

I wanted to especially say thanks to Adorama who was finally able to get me a camera after Wolf Camera pretty seriously botched my pre-order in my opinion. I initially wrote sort of a mean post about Adorama when I thought my camera wasn't going to come through, but they really stepped up and got the camera for me as advertised. Wolf not only didn't handle my pre-order well in my opinion, but they also botched up other pre-orders pretty badly as well. I'm not going to get into the details here yet, but I've heard from other people that their experience in getting Mark II's from Wolf were problematic as well.

More than just getting the camera for me though, once Adorama was aware that I thought I had a problem with my order, within hours they contacted me and gave it immediate attention. This sort of customer support is refreshing and shows that Adorama takes social media and their brand very seriously. Specifically, Helen Oster does a great job for Adorama in monitoring their brand reputation on the internet. Helen contacted me personally on my order both by phone and email. Helen also has a good reputation of focusing on various online forums and other places online looking for ways to offer customer service for Adorama. Other companies would do well to have a Helen Oster on their staff who so carefully looks after Adorama's reputation.

I'm excited to finally have the Canon 5D Mark II in my hands and am looking forward to what it can do -- especially given that my old 5D is completely dead at this point. I'm going to be sending my old 5D into Mackcam.com who I bought a 3-year warranty from on the camera in the next few days and then once it is repaired I'm planning on using it as a back up camera for my new 5D Mark II.

Angel and Jessica

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Hawk) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 03:28:00 +0000

Recently I blogged about a new project that I am starting called $2 portraits. The idea is that I will offer $2 to anyone who asks me for money from now on in exchange for their portrait.

On Friday while shooting up in the Haight I ran into Angel. As I walked by Angel he saw me with my camera and said to me, "$2 for portraits." I asked him if he'd heard of my $2 portrait project and he said no that this was just what he charged for portraits. I explained my $2 portrait project to Angel and he agreed to pose for it.

Angel was an interesting guy. He had a beer tucked inside his jacket that he'd been drinking while we talked. He told me that a guy took a photo of him and sold it in an art gallery down in Santa Cruz for a lot of money. He said it was printed up really large with his corn rows in. He said lots of people like to take his photo.

Angel was an animated and talkative guy and told me that Sly Stone was a cousin of his but that he never had a chance to meet him before he died. He told me that he was originally from Los Angeles and that his mom owned a house in Compton down there -- but he said that he hadn't seen his mom in years.

Angel said he came from a big family. He said he had three siblings from his mom and another four from his dad.

Angel and I talked for a bit about my own photography. He asked me if I had a card so I gave him one of my cards. I told him that if he wanted to see his portrait or some of my other photographs that he could use the internet address on my card. He said he wasn't sure how he'd ever do that because he didn't have a computer. I suggested that he might want to check out the internet at the library.

After our conversation I gave Angel his $2 and put my 50mm lens on to take another photo of him. He stopped me though and said, "another photograph's going to be another $2." I told him that it was o.k. that I got a good one from before and headed my way back down Haight continuing on my shoot.

Just before I met Angel on Friday while shooting in the Haight I also ran into Jessica. Jessica was pan handling and asked me for money. I told her about my $2 portrait project and she agreed to pose as well.

Jessica said that she's been in San Francisco for about 10 years now but that she first came to the City back in 1991. She said that she was originally from New York but that she came out to San Francisco to study art.

I asked Jessica if she had family and she said that she did but that she did not get along with them.

Jessica and I talked for a little while about her art. She said she's mostly focusing on acting right now but that she also does music and paints. She said she also does henna. She said that normally she does not have to be out on the street but that right now she had to be. She said that she definitely was going to make it as an actress and I wished her luck with that.

After talking for a bit more, Jessica asked if I had a card and I said I did and gave her one. Then I headed back down Haight Street for more shooting.

JPG Magazine Shuts Down

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Hawk) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 17:54:00 +0000

JPG Magazine: Blog: JPG Magazine Says Goodbye

It's always a sad say when you see a great photography magazine shut down. Unfortunately though printed media is just getting harder and harder to effectively monetize in a new digital world. JPG tried to combine both the digital and the print worlds in order to come up with a truly kick ass magazine -- and that they did.

I was continuously impressed by both the quality of photos inside as well as the actual print quality of the JPG publication.

The magazine's editor Laura Brunow Miner has a good-bye post here.

A couple of threads discussing the closure on Flickr here and here.

The New York Times reports on the shutdown here.

The Digital Picture Photo Forum Deleting "Anti Canon" Posts

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Hawk) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 15:56:00 +0000

Karel Donk � Blog Archive � The-Digital-Picture.com deletes “anti-Canon” post about the EOS 5D Mark II

Karel Donk, who recently wrote up a post detailing some of the quality control problems with the new Canon 5D Mark II, found that when he posted on his post at a new photo forum called the-digital-picture.com that his post was deleted by Bryan Carnathan, the guy who apparently runs the forum, saying that he'd rather not have "anti-Canon" posts in his forums.

As I really hate censorship, it looks like this won't be a forum that I'll be checking out.

Apparently Donk's been banned from the forums at DPReview as well after questioning Canon there in the past.

I've been following my own Canon 5D Mark II tracking information with UPS and it looks like it arrived in Oakland last night and is scheduled for delivery on Monday. Maybe I'll get lucky and it will show up tomorrow for the weekend. Thank much to the good folks at Adorama for getting me one!