Snapped Shot

The United States Army has detained a Reuters photographer, according to Reuters.

Far be it from me to suggest that coordinating with local "militants" might be seen as somewhat "prejudicial" in the eyes of the U.S. Army.

Seeing how the same have a tendency to bomb said Army.

(Incidentally, I'm getting nothing searching for his byline on the wire feed. He must not have been that productive for Reuters.)

Lightstalker Robert Goddyn seems to have caught three photojournalists covering the war in Georgia participating in a bit of what I like to call "pack photography." He lays out his evidence here, but for your reference, compare:

[Joao Silva/NYT] [Bruno Stevens/Cosmos] [Jan Grarup/NOORimages]

I've covered this topic briefly a couple of times in the past.

While it's true that each of these photographs would stand out by itself, the fact that three photographers each published what is essentially the same frame, to me, cheapens the news services provided by their respective employers. Are we really providing a value to the "news" consumer by publishing the same thing as everyone else (ala Walmart)?

Or, on the other hand, is this merely a side-effect of having so many professional photographers on the scene to cover any given conflict in the modern era?

Incidentally, in the examples provided above, I'm of the opinion that Bruno Stevens, as usual, is in a league all his own.

Every now and then, I get e-mails that tip me to some pretty nifty stuff. This is one of those instances, from the kind folks over at a little company called PicLens:

Hi Brian,

My name is Luna and I'm a Stanford intern at Cooliris, the creator of PicLens. PicLens features a full-screen interactive 3D Wall that revolutionizes the way photos are viewed on the web. With PicLens, viewers can seamlessly browse thousands of photos in seconds and focus in and out of individual photos like at an actual gallery wall. Words can't quite do PicLens justice so here is a link to a visual demo: http://piclens.com/demo.

Since Snapped Shot is often on top of the latest developments in the photography community, we thought you'd be interested in our recent partnership with a premier leader in the field—Getty Images. The Getty Images website is now PicLens enabled, allowing for a much richer way to browse photos quickly and easily. Getty is just the latest addition to the growing wave of what we consider a herald of the future Internet experience with other distinguished companies like Google, Flickr, and Facebook.

I hope you and your readers have a chance to check it out and enjoy the newly enabled Getty Images site.

All the Best,
Luna and The Cooliris Team

I dunno about being on top of the latest developments, as I tend to stick to more mundane topics these days, but I am pretty impressed by the technology.

It's not something that's revolutionary enough to change the way I work as of yet, but it does let me do some really nifty CNN-style flying photo screens. Here's a screenshot from my first traditional test of any new photo service:



The GettyImages integration will be something that I look forward to exploring. It's not working at present, despite the written notice, but at the very least, it'll take some of the boredom out of scrolling through the latest photos on the newswires.

Swooooosh.

If you're into nifty toys like this, be sure to head on over yonder and click the ginormous green "Download" button promptly.

(Hat Tip: Gateway Pundit)



Ahmad Batebi, an Iranian political prisoner who recently escaped to America, introduces his new blog. The text is in farsi, but that doesn't matter. The pictures speak a thousand words in any language.

It would seem we have another case of an embedded photographer who either promotes or is willingly being used by terrorists to spread terror and butchery.

From Fox News comes a photo and news:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A gang of Pakistani militants executed two alleged U.S. spies in front of thousands of cheering supporters Friday as a top U.N. official expressed fears that Pakistani government peace deals with the gunmen were sparking a wave of human rights abuses.

At least 5,000 people gathered by a stream in the Bajur region to watch the executions, which highlighted the power of local Taliban forces in the lawless tribal areas near the Afghan border.

Sounds like a pure lynch-mob to me.

And, who was there to document this savage butchery? Yep, you guessed it. Our favorite organization that likes to silence dissent and promote anti-western and anti-democratic ideals.

Question is, looking at that photo and knowing that the photog was RIGHT THERE in between the gunmen, was the photog there to promote this event or were they willingly used by everyone's enemy, the Taliban, to promote their terror in the western media.

What is sad, is that it makes no difference what the answer to that question is. The clear answer now is that the MSM, especially the cr(AP), willingly promotes terror and terroristic propaganda. And, that seems to be just ok with the world.

My question is, after 7 years, why is the Taliban still alive? Isn't it time to lay waste to that worthless area?

Warner Todd Houston, over at NewsBusters, latest posting shows us how the media and Obamians adore and revere their Obamassiah. He has accumulated various images that were used by the Obama camp, Obamassiah's followers, and even from the media. And as you would have guessed, many of his images have that Communistic overtone.

Click the image to head on over to see Warner's showing of Obamassiah's iconography.

Update: Sorry about the non-working link. Fixed it.

... But mostly for fun.

I've never heard of Zuma Press before, but they've got some amazingly candid shots of some of the world's best professional outrageists in their archives. And thanks to my new best friends at Newscom (announcement still pending), I can even show them to you!

Here's an alternate angle from a protest not too long ago. I can't explain it, but this one just has that much more "oompf" to it:



He's totally the man with a million arms. Continue reading »

What do you think the AP photog is trying to imply with this photo of Obamassiah in Wisconsin "town hall" meeting (cough, cough).

Take a look at the photo and tell me what you think.

For me, Obamassiah, leaning to the left of America, trying to impose his will upon it and CHANGE this country into his vision..... which leans to the left of liberalism (democrat-ic party).

Ok, how about this photo of Obamassiah represented like the typical Renaissance Holy Jesus type painting. What do you think the message is here? Out of the several dozens of images on yahoo news today out of Wisconsin, MANY of them had Obamassiah with an American flag in the shot with him. Over-compensating?

Now, if you have not gotten sick enough yet to run to the bathroom. I offer up this photo and caption as my way of losing one's lunch.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., hugs Pamela Cash-Roper after she spoke at his economy speech, Monday, June 9, 2008, at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in Raleigh, N.C. Roper, a lifelong Republican, told the crowd that she and her husband are struggling because of medical problems, losing their jobs and the high price of gas and prescription drugs.

Continue reading »

This week, I purchased a Canon 4400F scanner for no reason other than to transfer some old slides to digital format.

I thought I'd share a few of my favorites (so far):

Continue reading »

You wouldn't probably be able to guess it from the headline, but I am very happy to announce that I have been asked to write periodic articles for Black Star Publishing, a very historic photo studio agency [heh, oops!] in New York City. Legendary, even. We're talking about "the agency of Robert Capa" legendary, in fact.

Yep, this is the big news I was hinting at a few weeks ago. Woo hoo!

Now, before y'all get to wondering whether or not the article was actually written by me, what with it trying to be all reasonable and stuff, allow me to explain. You see, I enjoy your readership very much, but—How shall I put it?—the audience here isn't exactly the most "diverse" on the web. In fact, I can literally count the number of liberal-leaning readers that check in here on one hand. And I'm sure that both of you would be surprised to know that it does take more than one finger to count you.

So, conversely, it goes without saying that the readership over at BlackStar's blog—which is mainly composed of photographic professionals—is slightly, well, "different" than the type of reader that I'm used to speaking to over here. As such, I've been helpfully asked to tone my rhetoric down just a smidge—and I'm delighted to do so, if it means that I have a chance to elaborate on some of our discussions here to someone who wouldn't ordinarily be found anywhere on the same planet as Snapped Shot.

C'est la vie, non?

Anyway, my very first article delves into the deep depths of professional outrageography, and I hope it's as interesting for you to read as it was for me to write. Be sure to read the whole thing over here, and then check back in over here in the comments section and let me know what you think!

I found this photoshopped gem at Common Sense Against Islam:

Despite Brian's warning not to post any photographs belonging to major news agencies, I have decided to post this un-doctored Reuters photograph clearly showing an Israeli warplane bombing innocent Lebanese children.

Not for the squeamish.

Continue reading »

GettyImages photographer John Moore has been selected by the National Press Photographers Association as being the Photojournalist of the Year for 2008. John has taken some very powerful pictures over the last year—Including one of the few shots taken of Benazir Bhutto's assassination.


(John Moore/GettyImages)

You can read more about their selection over here.

With thanks to my cousin Michael for the excellent improv: