One of the greatest naturalists and ecologists of our time (and certainly on the list of all time greats!) gives a presentation to the TED conference upon his acceptance of the 2007 TED Prize, making a plea on behalf of all Earth’s creatures to learn more about our biosphere. The more we know as individuals, the better off we will be as a society, a community, a species. At 22:35 minutes, it’s a glimpse into what can be.
Jorg Colberg has posted a lengthy, informative, and updated piece on his experiences using some of the oft-cited self-publishing outfits such as Blurb and MyPublisher. His article is Here.
I’ve used MyPublisher before, when they first got started several years ago, but have not used them since. I’ve seen more recent books created by my friends using MyPublisher within the last year and they looked good, the same or slightly better quality than my first several books. I’ve not used Lulu.com, but did purchase a book from them that was made by alternativephotography.com that had some of my images in it. I was happy with the production value, quality, and image reproduction in the soft cover editions (2) I purchased.
I “joined” AsukaBook early on, but have not created a book with them as yet. I’ve been looking into creating a self-published book (at least one) and had considered creating my own handmade book of Polaroid transfers (good luck with that one). Maybe I’ll still do the handmade book but with self-printed images instead.
Of additional interest are comments and additional information from aphotoeditor.com related to Jorg’s post. In particular, read the comment by The Jackanory (#6) regarding his experience with Blurb.com and Ed Panar (#20) about Lulu.com.
As is being said, not just in these comments, is do your research. Not all self-publishing outfits are for you, not all provide consistent results, some that were good seem not too be as good anymore, and new ones will always be cropping up. The best way to determine quality is to create a book and get it in your hands, although that in itself is not the entire test, as you’ll understand by reading the posts above.
Digital technology is making publishing a book much easier and less expensive than it has been historically, but it’s not a perfect process yet. You still have to stay on top of things, expect lower quality than you would like, and as one commenter put it, remember that your viewer is likely only to have seen the one image in the book for the first time and doesn’t know the color is a little bit off. Perfection can be a curse.
I’m still working through my stockpile of SX-70 TIme Zero film. It will be a sad, sad day when I manipulate my last remaining sheet. This was taken yesterday at the Western Idaho Fair using one of my SX-70 bodies and manipulated on-site. My intention was to shoot part of the day using the Polaroid, then switch to digital later in the day and evening. But, I just kept shooting with the Polaroid. This is the first shot of the day.
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In the past two weeks I’ve received two phone calls from people (I think they are the same person, actually) asking me about silver extraction equipment for recovering silver from film and developing chemicals (fixer). I honestly don’t know much about the silver extraction process (other than silver halides are used as a light sensitive coating for films and that you can recover some silver from used film chemistry and film products) or where to point someone for more information or where to get the equipment. So, I told them to call a local photo lab. They might know more than I do.
So, after the second call, I did some internet snooping just to educate myself.
Be advised, this information is the result of a quick internet survey. It is by no means an exhaustive inquiry into the silver extraction process and I continue to know nearly nothing about the chemistry, toxicity, legality, equipment needed, or anything else about it. So, please don’t call or email me with questions. I’ll just ignore them. I’m posting this purely for my enjoyment and to pose a question.
Film, as those of us who used to shoot film know, is coated with silver, silver bromide (and other silver halides) to be exact. When the film is developed and runs through fixing process, the exposed silver on the film is removed and goes into the fixer solution. The primary sources of film are x-rays, sonographic film, offset film, and other photographic films. The silver within the fixer solution is considered to be waste, but the silver within the solution can be extracted and re-used or sold. There is a silver extraction industry that services the medical and printing industries, so what is causing me to receive phone calls from apparently a local mom-and-pop operation?
I haven’t looked to see what the going rate is for silver today (Actually, I ran across a site that listed today’s price at just over $13/troy ounce). I heard it was going up, and maybe there’s some conservative “guru” out there somewhere praising the rise in silver prices and how you can become a millionnaire extracting silver from the fixer chemistry your buddies (who are still hanging on to ancient film technology) throw down the drain. Or, that you can contact hospitals and photo labs to process their waste and make a mint (literally).
Well, there’s a catch (more than one, actually).
First catch: You’ll probably spend as much money on the equipment and processing as you will get back from the silver extraction, if you’re able to process enough material. So, no money bags there.
Second catch: The waste from processing your “waste” is hydrogen sulfide and/or ammonia (from two processes). I did come across a more environmentally friendly process that uses heated non-toxic enzymes.
Third catch: You can’t do this at home. Most likely, according to the laws of your local area (U.S.) you would be considered to be operating an illegal waste disposal site, in addition to not making your neighbors too happy.
So, is it worth it? Maybe, if you’ve got the warehouse in the properly zoned part of town, you’ve made the connections where you’ll get the source material from, you know the permitting and disposal process, and any of a number of other things. If you’re still making prints in your basement darkroom and think you can make some of that money back by recovering silver from your spent fixer (and from your friends), think again. One person stated a home-grown extraction process would still leave more than 500 mg/liter of silver in solution, which is 10,000 times the Federal discharge level for silver. Your local water treatment facility would be none too happy to find that suddenly flowing into their system.
There are money-making schemes everywhere. Buyer beware.
From the Illustrator’s Partnership blog, a 2 hour roundtable on the effects of the Orphan Works Act will be held Friday, August 8, beginning at 10:00am Eastern Time. Information is below. If you’d like information on the webcast, send an email to illustratorspartnership@cnymail.com. My current information is the passing of this legislation has been delayed again, which provides more time to make sure the Orphan Works Act is equitable and does not threaten the rights of artists who have legitimate copyright claims to their works.
You are cordially invited to attend
THE ORPHAN WORKS ROUNDTABLE AND WEBCAST
CONDUCTED BY THE SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
How Will the Orphan Works Bill Economically Impact Small Entities?
August 8, 2008
10:00 a.m.—12:00 noon
Salmagundi Club
47 Fifth Avenue (between 11th & 12th Streets)
New York, NY 10003
212-255-7740
http://www.salmagundi.org
Free Admission
Please attend this important industry event. Let government officials hear directly from those of us who will be harmed if this bill passes.
Until now, the Orphan Works bill has been driven by anti-copyright forces and special interest groups. This will be our first opportunity to be heard in a government sponsored forum devoted to the business interests of copyright holders. The Roundtable will be chaired by Tom Sullivan, Director of the Office of Advocacy of the Small Business Administration (SBA). It will give artists from the Northeast the chance to explain the impact of Orphan Works legislation on our careers and the art we create.
Eighteen distinguished panelists, all from the creative community, will represent the copyright interests of illustrators, photographers, fine artists, art licensors, writers, musicians, and the collateral businesses that serve and are dependent on creators.
Congress established the Office of Advocacy under Pub. L. 94-305 to represent the views of small business entities before Federal agencies and Congress. Advocacy is an independent office within the Small Business Administration (“SBA”), so the views expressed by Advocacy do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA or the Administration. Part of our role under the Regulatory Flexibility Act (“RFA”) is to assist agencies in understanding how regulations may impact small businesses, and to ensure that the voice of small business is not lost within the regulatory and legislative processes. We regularly host roundtables in order to obtain input from small business stakeholders who may be affected by draft regulations or legislation. For more information, visit Advocacy’s website at: http://www.sba.gov/advo/
The event will be webcast.
PLEASE RSVP to illustratorspartnership@cnymail.com and include the names of those attending.
AGENDA
I. Welcome and Introductions—10:00 a.m.
Thomas M. Sullivan, Chief Counsel, Office of Advocacy, U.S. Small Business Administration
II. Legislative Update on Orphan Works Bill—10:10 a.m.—
Cynthia Turner, Illustrators Partnership
A brief report on the status of the proposed legislation and an overview of the issues that concern individual creators and small business entities.
III. Potential Effect on Small Entities—10:30 a.m.—
Brad Holland, Co-Founder, Illustrators’ Partnership
A discussion regarding various ways the proposed bill could potentially impact individual creators and small entities, including:
IV. Potential Cost of Compliance —11:15 a.m.—
Constance Evans, Executive Director,
Advertising Photographers of America
Dr. Theodore Feder, President, Artists Rights Society
An analysis of what economic costs and technical requirements the bill would impose on small entities, including cost of compliance, recordkeeping costs, registration costs, the purchasing of new equipment, the hiring of legal counsel, with a focus on the following questions:
V. Adjourn—12:00 Noon
PANELISTS
Rich Bengloff joined the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) as it’s President in January of 2007. Rich also serves as a board member representing the Independent music label community on the boards of the SoundExchange and the Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies (”AARC”). Rich has spent much of his career in the music and entertainment industry, having served in various capacities at SONY Corporation of America, as Vice President of Columbia Pictures Entertainment; as Vice President, Finance and Administration at Relativity Records/R.E.D. Distribution; and as Vice President, Distribution Operations for Sony Music Distribution between 1989- 1998. He then joined Elektra Entertainment Group to become Senior Vice President/CFO. In 2005, he became WNYC Radio’s Vice President of Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer. Rich holds a BA degree from SUNY–New Paltz and an MBA from Columbia University. Rich also co-teaches the music industry course in the Media and Entertainment Department of Fordham University’s MBA program.
Kathleen Bitetti has been the Executive Director of the Artists Foundation since 1992. She was director/curator of the Harbor Gallery at U/Mass Boston from 1989-1992. She holds a BA in both Economics and Art (art history & studio) from the University of Massachusetts- Boston. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with distinction in both majors. Her specialization in economics was public policy and her senior paper entitled, Domestic Public Policy for the Arts, combined both majors. She was awarded the Alumni Association Scholarship Award for Academic Distinction and University Service. She is also an exhibiting installation artist and has had her work shown at the New Bedford Art Museum, The Gallery @ the Distillery, Mobius, Newton Art Center, U/Mass-Boston and many other area galleries. She is currently working on a large scale installation series addressing Domestic Violence Issues.
Barbara Bordnick received her BFA in fashion design and fine art from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. After living in Europe, she opened a studio in New York, where her fashion and portrait photography in Harpers Bazaar began drawing wide acclaim. Over the past 35 years, Bordnick has been published internationally in most major magazines and has received innumerable awards for her film and print advertising and editorial work. Her photography has been exhibited widely around the world and is in the permanent collections of The International Center of Photography, Portland Museum of Art, Polaroid Collection, George Eastman House, as well as in many private collections. Bordnick’s work includes innovative projects such as “America’s Great Women in Jazz”, commissioned by Polaroid to introduce large format Polaroid film. She has directed award-winning television commercials for JCPenney fashions, and her portrait of lyricist Yip Harburg became a United States commemorative postage stamp. Her three immensely celebrated books of digital photographs, Searchings: Secret Landscapes of Flowers were the inspiration for, and an integral part of the choreography and stage set of Jennifer Muller’s ballet “Flowers”. Bordnick is a much-sought-after lecturer in the United States and Europe and is an adjunct professor at Parsons School of Design. An avid supporter of her profession and interested in advancing photographers’ rights, Ms. Bordnick served as Chair of the New York Chapter of the Advertising Photographers of America and was the first woman to serve as President of the American Society of Media Photographers.
Terry Brown is the Director Emeritus of the Society of Illustrators. He was Director 1982-2007 and on staff since 1974. He was also Executive Director of the Graphic Artists Guild 1974 - 1976. During his tenure the Society has grown its educational programs, exhibition outreach and library/archives. He has lectured at universities and museums nationwide on the History of American Illustration and taught American Culture and the Applied Arts at the School of Visual arts 1995 - 2000. He is currently on the faculty of The Illustration Academy at Ringling School of Art. He has served on the Advisory Boards of the National Museum of American Illustration (Newport, RI) and the National Art Museum of Sport (Indianapolis). He is currently on the Board of Artists Fellowship, a foundation that supports artists in need, and chairs the Reprographics Committee on the Board of Directors of the Society of Illustrators. His writings have included This Face You Got, The Education of an Illustrator and many biographical sketches in Society publications. He has also curated exhibitions for the San Diego Museum of Art and the Society.
Gerard Colby, trade union activist, investigative journalist and author, is currently serving his second term as the President of the National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981. Colby is co-author (with Charlotte Dennett) of Thy Will Be Done: The Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil (HarperCollins, 1995), author of Du Pont Dynasty: Behind the Nylon Curtain (Lyle Stuart, 1984), and lead contributor to Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press (Prometheus, 2003), winner of the 2003 National Press Club award for press criticism. The National Writers Union is the only labor union that represents freelance writers in all genres, formats, and media.
Frank Costantino, an architectural illustrator for over thirty-five years, has served renown architectural, design, and development firms throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Mr. Costantino is Co-Founder of the American Society of Architectural Illustrators (ASAI), an international organization representing the professional, business and aesthetic interests of its US and worldwide membership. He is also a Co-Founding Board member of the American Society of Illustrators Partnership (ASIP), and its current Vice-Chairman. He is a recipient of the Hugh Ferriss Memorial Prize—the world’s most prestigious award for architectural illustration—as well as other Juror and Category awards, from the American Society of Architectural Illustrators. His work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, most notably at The Art Institute of Chicago, The Urban Center of New York, The Octagon Museum in Washington, D.C., as well as in Tokyo, Seoul, Berlin, and Lisbon. Award winning artworks from his career have been published in more than forty-five books or catalogues over the years. Since 1987, his drawings or paintings have been accepted into annual juried ASAI exhibitions. Representative pieces of Mr. Costantino’s work for Chicago projects are included in the permanent collection of The Art Institute of Chicago.
Constance Evans is National Executive Director of the Advertising Photographers of America (APA), a leading trade association representing 2,400 of the top professional advertising and photographic artists, now in its 26th year. With more than twenty five years experience advocating the issues and rights that impact creative professionals, Evans is passionate about helping artists succeed in business while achieving their artistic goals. Among other posts she has held, she served as director of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and was formerly an associate professor of art at Southampton College of Long Island University where she also served as director of the fine arts division. Evans has a Master of Fine Arts degree from Rochester Institute of Technology and is an award winning artist. She serves on the MFA Advisory Board of Western Connecticut State University, the Board of the Center for Contemporary Printmaking, and is a member of the Adobe Photographers Council.
Dr. Theodore Feder, President of Artists rights Society (ARS), a national organization that monitors and protects the intellectual property rights, including the copyrights, of artists from the U.S. and abroad. Among artists represented by ARS are Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Joan Miro, Marc Chagall, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, Georgia O’Keeffe, Mark Rothko, Willem de kooning, Frank Lloyd Wright and many otehrs. Also President of Art Resource, an organization that represents the rights and permissions interests of many museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MOMA, the Louvre, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and many others. Received his Ph.D. in Art History and Archaeology from Columbia University where he also taught the subject.
George Fulton is an award-winning advertising and print photographer for major brands. His work has been published in Communication Arts, Print, HOW, and Archive. Among hundreds of awards to his credit, the 2007 ASICS campaign won his second national gold AddyTM for a photography campaign. Building images from the ground up with blank frames and a multitude of layers, his work creates unique brand stories for clients around the world. George is a past National President of the Advertising Photographers of America, the recipient of the APA 25th Anniversary Creativity Award, given in recognition of his work and its impact on the aesthetics of advertising and editorial photography, and the 2008 recipient of the IPC Leadership Awards presented at the United Nations. George speaks extensively to advertising groups and associations around the country, is an experienced writer with articles appearing in many industry publications, and a musician of many years and instruments.
John Harrington is a professional photographer who has traveled extensively in the U.S. lecturing on business practices and is author of the book Best Business Practices for Photographers. In May of 2007, John was honored at the United Nations with the IPC Leadership Award. John continues his 18+ years in assignments in DC and worldwide serving both editorial and commercial clients with credits including the Associated Press, New York Times, Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, The National Geographic Society, USA Today, People, and Life. Commercially, John has worked with over half the Fortune 50 companies, and even more of the Fortune 500. He has spoken at the National Press Photographer’s Associations’ Northern Short Course for several years, as well as for the White House News Photographer’s Association, Smithsonian Institution, and for professional organizations across the country.
Brad Holland is one of the most influential illustrators of the 20th Century. The New York Times, in nominating him for a Pulitzer Prize, wrote that his work goes “beyond the moment to illuminate a general condition universal in space and time. The images are sometimes brutal, but the feeling is almost always compassionate.” The Washington Post has called him “an undisputed star of American Illustration,” and the editors of RSVP, the artists’ directory, voted him “the one artist, who in our opinion, has had the single greatest impact on the illustration field during the last twenty five years.” Writing in Print Magazine, critic Steven Heller has written, “as [Jackson] Pollock redefined plastic art, Holland has radically changed the perception of illustration.” Holland’s work has been exhibited in the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris; the U.S. Library of Congress; the Museum of American Illustration; the Mikkeli Art Museum in Mikkeli, Finland; the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Clermont-Ferrand, France. His work is included in the permanent collection of the Library of Congress, the National Portrait Gallery as well as corporate and private collections. Holland’s work has appeared in nearly every major U.S. and many international publications, and feature films. He has received the gold medals of the New York Art Director’s Club, the Society of Publication Designers, the Society of Illustrators, and the Society’s prestigious Hamilton King Award. Holland is a member of the Society of Illustrators’ Hall of Fame and the Alliance Graphique Internationale. He is a Founding Board Member of the Illustrators’ Partnership of America and Founder and Co-Chair of the American Society of Illustrators Partnership.
Deb Kozikowski is a former elementary educator, Deb has broad background as a business and technical writer and small business consultant as well as a long career in real estate. In 2004 she served as liaison between the Kerry Campaign and Rural Leaders for Kerry and was a co-founder of the DNC’s Rural Working Group. A lifelong resident of western Massachusetts, Deb currently serves as Vice Chair of the Massachusetts Democratic Party and is a member of the Executive Board of the Association of State Democratic Chairs. She is the Co-founder of RuralVotes.com.
Dena Matthews is a medical illustrator, small business owner, speaker, author and teacher, receiving her B.S. degree in Biology while also studying painting, drawing, design and computer graphics at the University of Connecticut. She left her job working in a Pfizer laboratory, to work towards a career that combines her love of science, medicine, art and technology. She earned a master’s degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Biomedical Visualization program, where she studied alongside medical students and under the guidance of professional medical illustrators. There she learned anatomy, histology, pathophysiology, witnessed and documented surgeries and mastered the tools of digital illustration and 3D computer visualization.
Cheryl Phelps is an Art Licensor, Illustrator, Designer and Adjunct Professor at the School of Visual Arts and the Fashion Institute of Technology. Phelps has been active in greeting card, social expression and editorial illustration fields for 21 yrs. Her clients include: Hallmark, American Greetings, Gibson, Paramount, Portal, Marcel Schurman, Current, Mikasa China, Kodak, Target, Nordstroms, Keds, Benny and Smith-Crayola, McCalls Magazine, Girls’ Life, Limited Too, Ariel Pub., Scholastic, Harcourt Brace, Stationery Domain, etc. She has exhibited extensively in more than 40 domestic and international painting exhibitions in Galleries and art events. Her teaching & speaking experience includes: The School of Visual Arts-New York, NY;
Fashion Institute of Technology- New York, NY; Kansas City Art Institute-Kansas City, MO; Watkins Institute- Nashville, TN; Osaka Univ.Exchange KCAI- Kansas City, MO; Marywood University- Scranton, PA; Kutztown University- Kutztown, PA; Greeting Card & Licensing Workshops- US; ICON 4- Art Licensing Workshop- SF, CA; SCBWI Conference Speaker- Golden, CO; CAI- Colorado Alliance of Illustrators- Denver, CO; Society of Illustrators-”SILA”- LA, CA; Graphic Artist Guild Licensing Panel Events- NY, NY; Licensing Show- Licensing University Seminar- NY, NY; CHA Show Designers Education Day- Chicago, IL; CHA Show Designers Education Day- Anaheim, CA.
Gene Poole was born in the rough inner city of Glasgow Scotland. He moved to London and was founding member of Alternative Cabaret with Alexei Sayle in the Post Thatcherite UK, releasing the double ‘A’ side single with Alexei, When The Gold Runs Dry. A move to New York City found him recording for Chrysalis with Sly and Robbie, famed rhythm section for Dylan and many others. Joining the New York City acid punk band Warrior Soul resulted in major European Festival tours including Donnington, Monsters Of Rock and being nominated for best live act by MTV in addition to being a host on MTV Europe. He received his first gold record with the Lava/Atlantic release of Bif Naked in 2000 followed by major European Tours and live RTE Broadcasts with his new band. In this, Gene Poole was DJ, Vocalist and guitar player. Gene has moved to Nashville, Tennessee and in addition to having an Op Ed piece published in the Nashville Business Journal is deeply involved in organizing the Nashville community to protest Orphan Works.
David Rhodes has been president of the School of Visual Arts in New York City since 1978. He is an active advocate for all aspects of quality art education. Mr. Rhodes presently serves on the boards of the Association of Colleges and Universities, the New Hampshire Institute of Art, and the School of Visual Arts. Mr. Rhodes is also a Board Trustee for the Association of Regionally Accredited Private Colleges and Universities, the Association of Proprietary Colleges, and the National Association of Visual Arts. He serves as the Vice Chair on the Regents Advisory Counsel on Institutional Accreditation for the University of the State of New York, Commission for Higher Education. He has been a member of the accreditation teams for this nation’s arts schools since 1986, including such distinguished visual arts institutions as Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design, Delaware College of Art and Design, Strayer University, Bradley Academy of the Visual Arts, Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, Harrington Institute of Interior Design, Moore College of Art and Design, and Academy of Art College. Mr. Rhodes has testified before Congress numerous times about public policy surrounding higher education, cultural institutions and partnerships. In 2003 Mr. Rhodes was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Wesleyan University, in 2004 a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators, and in 2007 the Award for Outstanding Lifetime Service to Art Education from the University Council for Art Education.
Alexis Scott was a photographers’ agent when she serendipitously found an opportunity to launch her own business. Upon accidentally losing her address book, she quickly learned the true value of having immediate access to her work contacts. She knew that if her creative community contacts meant so much to her, they must have value to others. With this idea in mind, Alexis founded the L.A. Workbook at her kitchen table. Today the Workbook and workbook.com are the premier creative resources for the commercial arts industry in the US and Canada. Thirty-one years in the making, Workbook has been a leading purveyor of graphic arts marketing tools. The company provides commercial artists — photographers, illustrators, designers, letterers and their representatives — with print and online vehicles to promote their assignment work to business creatives at advertising agencies, design studios, corporate art departments and publications. The Workbook Database maintains a stringently verified collection of listings of over 25,000 companies and nearly 60,000 individuals. As publisher and CEO, Alexis manages day-to-day operations for the Workbook while also providing leadership in the commercial arts industry. She is an advocate for artists and photographers and frequently speaking out on their behalf at industry events such as PhotoPlus, the Illustration Conference and the New School in New York. Alexis has also served as a member of the Board of Directors of AIGA (the American Institute of Graphic Arts) and was a past adviser to the Graphic Arts Council of the Los Angeles Museum of Art (LACMA). She has also supported the small business community and specifically women, as a member of the Board of Directors of Count Me In, a non-profit organization that provides microloans to women-owned small businesses.
Frank Stella is a renowned artist with paintings, sculptures, constructions, and prints in most major museums of the world.
Cynthia Turner is a certified medical illustrator and a Fellow of the Association of Medical Illustrators (AMI). She is a founding member and Board member of the Illustrators’ Partnership of America, a member of the Society of Illustrators, and a Founder and Co-chair of the American Society of Illustrators’ Partnership. Cynthia has been self-employed with her partner, Edmond Alexander, since 1987. She creates original illustrations describing pathophysiological cascades, drug actions and devices for pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology firms and their agencies. Cynthia’s work appears in the annual juried RxClub Show—Best in Medical Advertising and the annual salons of the Association of Medical Illustrators. She was selected for inclusion in the juried Art of Medicine Exhibition, Society of Illustrators, New York, the juried Dream Anatomy Exhibition at the National Library of Medicine, and Johnson & Johnson honored her with a one-man show, The Medical Art of Cynthia Turner. She exhibited at the University de Andres Bello Art Gallery and the U.S. Embassy in Santiago, Chile and those works were later included in the permanent collection of the Universidad Andres Bello Medical School.
Early evening light makes the reflections of the surrounding hills on the Middle Fork of the Boise River look like fall even though it’s the middle of summer.
I don’t come out this way often because the road along this stretch of the river is dirt, rough, and dangerous. Not dangerous because in some parts it’s narrow, winding, and 1000 ft above Arrowrock Reservoir with no guard rails, but because it’s narrow, winding and 1000 ft above the reservoir with no guard rails AND idiots from the city drive the road too fast thinking they’re the only ones on the road. The speed limit is 25, but on some parts you can’t (and shouldn’t) drive that fast due to extreme lack of visibility around sharp curves, washboard surfaces that can make control of your vehicle problematic if you don’t know what you’re doing, narrow roadbed (one car wide in spots with no turnouts), loose dirt which makes stopping problematic if you’re going too fast, extreme and precipitous drop-off (it’s so very obvious there is no shoulder to this road) which makes landing problematic (it’s not the fall that kills you, but the sudden stop at the end).
This road has its accidents every year. Mostly people coming around sharp curves too fast from opposite directions and on the same side of the road. I’ve come across idiot-mobiles kissing each other on the apex of a precipitous curve, their befuddled drivers standing in the middle of the road waiting to get run down by the next idiot careening around the corner. A few have driven off the road (speed, alcohol, inattentiveness all factors of varying degrees). Some survive, some don’t.
I’m not a pansy when it comes to driving roads like this. I seek them out and have been on much much more challenging “tracks” by myself when my worry is getting stuck 20 miles from the nearest pavement. It’s how you get back into the thick of things (driving or to start a hike) for those photos few others, if any, have, and for those adventures worth retelling. It’s not the road, it’s the idiot drivers I worry most about. The weekend warriors who thnk every dirt road is a racetrack run best with a few beers in the belly and one in hand.
To drive to this point on the road, about 30 miles, takes about 2 hours one way if driven correctly. If you grit your teeth, hope all the idiots are still sleeping it off in their campsite, on their boat, drowning worms, or otherwise not on the road, then the rewards are good. There are many places along the way to stop and get some great images if you’re patient and observant and wait for the light.
So, that’s the “walking 5 miles in hip deep snow uphill both ways (barefoot, carrying an orphaned cow)” story behind this photo even though I don’t believe such stories make photos any better (or worse). It’s just part of the process.
On this trip I almost had run-ins with 3 idiots, but luckily they were in areas with enough visibility or road space to stop or get out of the way.
The Washington Post today printed an article about the ability of the TSA (Transportation Safety Administration) and DHS (Department of Homeland Security) to seize and hold for off-site inspection any electronic storage device and/or written documents for an unspecified time without any reason of suspicion or wrongdoing.
This means iPods, laptops, cell phones, hard drives, USB flash drives, beepers/pagers, CDs/DVDs, video and audio tapes, written documents, books, papers, pamphlets and other written materials commonly referred to as “pocket trash” or “pocket litter”.
Exerpt:
“They’re saying they can rifle through all the information in a traveler’s laptop without having a smidgen of evidence that the traveler is breaking the law,” said Greg Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology. Notably, he said, the policies “don’t establish any criteria for whose computer can be searched.”
Customs Deputy Commissioner Jayson P. Ahern said the efforts “do not infringe on Americans’ privacy.” In a statement submitted to Feingold for a June hearing on the issue, he noted that the executive branch has long had “plenary authority to conduct routine searches and seizures at the border without probable cause or a warrant” to prevent drugs and other contraband from entering the country.
end exerpt
When do we get to the point where we hear the words “Papers, please” whenever we cross a state border, enter a neighboring town or city, board a bus, train, get into a taxi, or are just walking down the street? When do we start seeing public service announcements on television exhorting us to keep an eye on our neighbor and report suspicious activities? When do we start hearing “Patriotic” radio announcements?
To what extent are we going to allow our government to rule by fear, to convince us that we’re under constant threat and need to allow the government to keep their grubby hands in our business?
I’m not an extremist nor do I think the world is a happy place. I agree that reasonable measures need to be taken to protect innocent people from whack jobs anywhere, American or otherwise. But, come on. If you piss off a TSA or DHS guard at airport security they could make your life miserable in an instant for no other reason than a made-up “suspicion”. Granted, airport security has had this ability for years. But, it seems that the administration has been encouraging a more aggressive use of this discretionary power and there is no recourse for the innocent citizen if that power is abused. There should be checks. There should be criteria for reasonable suspicion.
Senator Russell Feinghold is planning to introduce legislation to require reasonable suspicion and prohibit profiling based on race, religion or national origin.
When a government encourages its citizens to react based on fear, its motives come into question. The U.S. government used fear to promote nationalism in WWII, but the threat was obvious. And, look what happened…..internment camps for Japanese Americans. Based on fear. We round up individuals and groups today, ship them off to an island prison away from prying eyes, hold them without recourse or reason for however long the government wants. Some may think it’s necessary until it’s them or a family member or friend that gets snatched up.
The threat is not so obvious today, either because the threat (as drilled into us by the current administration) is not as imminent as described, or because it is truly hidden (covert). Our government doesn’t inform us about the threats, the thwarted attempts or other progress, only that we’re under attack from all sides and we have to build a wall around our country and ourselves for protection. We have to give up our freedoms (little by little) so we can be safe, so we can be more dependent upon the government to tell us what’s good and what’s bad (or else).
I’m not sure who I should be more wary of anymore, terrorists or my own government. The line is beginning to blur.