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Police clashing with photographers, not protesters

Sunday, October 9th, 2011

Below you’ll see a screen-capture of one of the photos in BBC’s “Week in pictures” for last week. The main thing I want to bring to your attention is the caption:

Police clashed with protesters in Athens as Greek unions held demonstrations over austerity measures being applied as the government struggles to avoid a catastrophic default. Across Greece public transport was paralysed, flights cancelled, schools and courts closed, and hospitals operated only an emergency service.

Emphasis mine – click the image to see the text in full detail.

I have a few issues with this description.  First of all, this doesn’t look like a protester to me.  All that camera gear hanging off of her waist?  That’s quite a commitment, lugging it around.  Normal people don’t do that.  Amateur photographers don’t even do that.

But the professionals do that.

Seeing a police-type decking a photographer smacks of censorship.  What’s he hiding?  What is really going on? I won’t know from over here, but it sure makes it look like the government/police types aren’t the good guys.

Does anyone out there know the background behind this pic? I’m curious: who is the photographer, why is she being attacked, and what was the outcome?

This doesn't look like a protester to me

This doesn't look like a protester to me

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Opportunity knocks

Sunday, September 26th, 2010

This was going on across the street when dropping my daughter off at her school:

Building on Fire

Building on Fire

It was a pretty busy scene, so long I did not linger. Better to get out from underfoot than add to the difficulty of saving lives.

Still, it was good to have a relatively decent camera with me. As I’ve mentioned before, when missing opportunities, that one should always carry a camera. A good one, even – cell phone cameras, even the iPhone, aren’t up to this particular task.

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Value of Exposure brouhaha

Saturday, June 20th, 2009

There’s been a bit of noise recently over Google asking for illustrators & artists to provide work sans pay.  I mostly talk about photography here, so obviously there’s a bit of a bias leaning towards the “no pay doesn’t put food on the table” slant.  However, I’m also a complete unknown – so exposure might be worth it for someone in my case.

Reading over other blogs, the response is pretty virulently anti-Google.  Many thanks to A Photo Editor for his post yesterday, then. Seriously, read it.  Then read the comments below it.  This is possibly the most constructive and objective set of views I’ve seen on the subject.

Sanity on the internet.  Surely one of the four horsemen.

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