Photography, in practice

I take pictures. I've done it for years. At times it's difficult (not the oddities of light and equipment, nor the cost and uncertainty [back in the day one had to do some mental figuring because the recorded image wasn't immediately available for review. One was right, or not] nor yet the search for places to present one's work), and some of those difficulties remain.

People don't like strangers taking pictures of them.

These days, "because everything has changed," there are a lot of people who don't like people taking pictures at all.

Last week sometime a guy was harassed in San Francisco Muni hassles shooter Up in Seattle, Wash a guy was more than just hassled Brown Equals Terrorist he had the police come to his house because a security guard had nervous thoughts about him.

Now shooting pictures is pretty straightforward. So long as one doesn't publish them, anyone can, pretty much, take pictures of anyone, anything and anyplace. People tell you they don't want you to take their pictures, but they can't forbid you. If you publish them they can sue (one of the difficulties is the issue of discretion vs. principle [I happen to dislike rewarding brutish behaviour, but the cost of replacing equipment if some lunkhead decides it's worth it to risk an assault and battery charge; and then the hassle of suing for the cost of my damaged gear, which said lunkhead may not have the money to replace, may cause me to stop shooting. A press pass will usually diffuse this, but I digress).

But nowadays people who don't like your pictures have trump cards. Taking pictures near a playground? They'll call the cops and say a pedophile has been around. Near the docks, boom you're a terrorist.

It isn't limited to the States. In Canada (Toronto, as I recall) a guy had some cops at a protest take his camera away and reformat the disk. It backfired, just a bit, because the guy had a spare flash-drive and had done a quick swap (this is one of the reasons I want the wireless widget for my digital).

So there is a file (pdf) which can be kept to refer to when some cop (because a private citizen isn't going to give a damn) tries to hassle you for taking pictures.

Photo Issues, a la Bert P. Krages.

Stored energy

Spring has arrived, on catlike feet.

This is about the time for it, and I wish it were more sunny than grey today.

I measure spring by the bonsai. Well, the incipient bonsai, none of the trained plants survived the time I was away. Los Angeles is tough on them, they need lots of attention because the weather is so variable.

Friday I did some winter trimming of the wee things. I need to repot most of them (about a dozen). I also started putting my birthday present to use (I was given a trio of half-barrels, they are going to house grapes and small herbs) by repotting the Tokay. The birdshit grape (the seedling just appeared in a pot of tri-color garlic three years ago) and the labrusca I grew from a cutting (one of the stranger events I've done in botany. Cut a branch [one joint] with a leaf. Put it in a pot and water it. The leaf just sits there (like one of the plant creatures from Midnight at the Well of Souls) and doesn't die. Months go by. It just sits there and doesn't die. No growth, no wilting [no, not true, there was a side branch when I potted it] it just sits there. All through the summer it sat there. In Sept. it elected to send out some more leaves. The it went dormant for the winter.) Four years on and it was the first plant to hint at return. It needs to be repotted, and today it goes from a one gallon terra cotta pot to a half barrel. I have four cubic feet of mixed soil and compost, a half gallon of small pumice and, if I need it, about a quart of larger pumic (more if I raid the border between the driveways). Rain and dirt, the peasants' joy and trials.

Then to separate and repot a trio of wisteria (one of which may be dead, they are really in a lousy pot, but they volunteered and have been duking it out for light ever since. Interesting habits they've developed.