In an effort to provide easy access to photographers' rights while making pictures in public places, Amateur Photographer – a London based magazine – will be providing a free photography rights lens cloth with the July 10 issue of it's magazine.

The rights (or guidelines) were issued to Metropolitan Police officers last year to help them understand photographers' rights in public.

 

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Here's something interesting that's been bouncing around the Internet today. The Web site Ifitwasmyhome.com shows what the BP oil spill would look like if it were slicking your zip code area. See what it would look like if the point of origin was Kalispell.

As if that weren't depressing enough, scroll down to see a live video feed from NPR as well as the estimated gallons leaked in live time.

 

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Here's an interesting dilemma with a detailed timeline as reported on The Russian Photos Blog.

The story goes like this:

On Jan. 12, photojournalist Daniel Morel found himself in the middle of the earthquake which rocked Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Morel made pictures and, realizing he had powerful and exclusive content, he opened a Twitter account, tweeted he had earthquake pictures and uploaded 13 images to TwitPic, a separate service from Twitter.

Then comes along Lisandro Suaero, who steals the 13 images and uploads them to his own TwitPic account. He too tweets he has earthquake images. Enter the Afence France Presse (AFP) who copies the images from Suero's account and licenses them out to the world.

And who gets sued? Morel.

The classy AFP responds to Morel's cease-and-desist letter not by apologizing, but by filing a lawsuit for "making false and disparaging statements."

Morel hits back with a 66-page counterclaim which not only trumps the AFP suit by 58 pages but is highly researched and includes back-and-fourth tweets which seem to show that AFP knowingly stole the images.

Check out the full story on with a detailed timeline and description of court documents here: The Russian Photos Blog "We Stole Your Pictures, Now We're Going To Sue You."

 

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Helena based photographer Roger Mathis of Roger Mathis Photography was recently named the Montana photographer of the year by the Montana Professional Photographers Association. In addition, Mathis won the Judge's Choice Award which was presented by the print competition jury chairman Duncan McNab of Bozeman.

Mathis also won first place in the Women's Portrait category for his print "Pigment Portrayal" and in the Portrait Couple category for "The Pleasure of Company."

Read the full article in the Helena Independent Record here.
Visit Roger Mathis Photography on the Web here.

 

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Police officers raided the offices of James Madison University's student newspaper The Breeze and seized over 900 photographs last week. The raid was a part of their investigation into the off-campus Springfest event that escalated into a riot.

An excerpt from a story on The Breeze Web site:

Frank D. LoMonte, the executive director of the Student Press Law Center, said the action by the commonwealth attorney’s office was “blatantly illegal” and a violation of the federal Privacy Protection Act.

The act states “it shall be unlawful for a government officer or employee, in connection with the investigation or prosecution of a criminal offense, to search for or seize any work product materials possessed by a person reasonably believed to have a purpose to disseminate to the public a newspaper, book, broadcast, or other similar form of public communication.”

“The tactics used this morning were a clear attempt to intimidate journalists into giving up their rights,” LoMonte said. “The threat to coerce the students and shut down the newsroom is completely out of bounds.”

Read the full story here.
Follow Updates on The Breeze Web site.

 

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For a little comic relief on tax day, check out this Op-Art by Sam Potts on the New York Times Web site. "A Tax form for the Marginally Employed" outlines special deductions for freelancers.

See it in full here.

 

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Following last year's Pulitzer Prize photography exhibit, the Montana Museum of Art & Culture at The University of Montana is hosting another photographic journey through history with "Jam Session: America's Jazz Ambassadors Embrace the World."

The exhibit chronicles the international tours of the jazz legends who served as cultural ambassadors for the U.S. State Department from the 1950s through the 1970s.

 

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Photojournalist Louis Psihoyos won the highest honor, an Oscar, for his documentary film "The Cove" during Sunday's Academy Awards. The last time a still photographer won an Oscar was when Zana Briski won in 2004 for "Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids."

Psihoyos directed "The Cove," which documents an annual, and often brutal, dolphin hunt in the small town of Taiji in Japan. With his first film, it won the Oscar for best documentary.

A graduate from the University of Missouri's journalism school, Psihoyos worked at the Los Angeles Times before becoming a shooter for National Geographic. Read about his own wrestling with shooting video over stills and the decision to make the film "by whatever means necessary" after failed cooperation with Japanese officials and townspeople in his interview with the National Press Photographer's Association here. Check out the video for a preview of "The Cove" and visit "The Cove" Web site here.

 

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