Photographer, NOT a terrorist

Honestly, I am!

As per a couple of my older posts, the photographic world is still dealing with the lovely piece of legislation that is section 44 of the prevention of terrorism act, much 'fun' has ensued over the past months with photographers getting detained and arrested (and even a film crew covering the story of a photographer being detained!).

Despite numerous triumphs of common sense, wandering around taking pictures is still perceived by those who honestly should know better as a more than slightly dodgy thing to do (yes you'd probably still get pinged as carrying out a hostile reconnaissance if you put down a tripod, metered for the the light conditions and start kerchunking away with an 5x4 piece of photographic antiquity).

As such (and it's been going a while now - better late than never on my part I suppose) a campaign called I'm a Photographer, not a Terrorist (PHNAT) has been set up to enable photographers to work together and combat the ongoing attack on, what is already, an industry with enough problems.

With quite a bit of useful information on their site, including a bust card detailing your rights as a photographer if you are subject to stop and search under section 44, a map showing places where photography is likely to be a problem and even an online shop where you can buy some very fetching I'm a Photographer, not a Terrorist branded clobber.

As part of the campaign a mass photo gathering has been set up to take place in Trafalgar Square at 12pm on Saturday 23rd of Jan; so far, according to the facebook event 1,050 people have expressed an interest in being there, including yours truly.

Supporting this campaign is extremely important, whether a photographer or not. I'm not one to harp on about civil liberties, usually I like to remain detached so I can look at things in an objective light, but we should all be doing our best to ensure that something gets done about a rather stupid piece of legislation that effects us all, from the tourist with the point and shoot, right up to the professional photographer working on assignment.

You can also find PHNAT on facebook.
Or keep up to date with the latest news via the @phnat Twitter stream.

If you're there, maybe you can find the unknown snapper (play spot the bloke with a paper bag on his head)?

Quick post - first of 2010

Happy New Year to both of you!

A very quick post, I'm up to my eyeballs in university work for the next two weeks, but have some bits and bobs lined up to post after.

Just found a video I'd been looking for for some time, but somehow managed to miss on Google.

New York Times photojournalist Tyler Hicks files from southern Afghanistan (link to video is below the paragraph).

Filmed by Prof. Bill Gentile, the 13 min piece of video shows how Tyler Hicks files his images back to the US from Afghanistan in very basic conditions. A very informative piece that's well worth a watch.