LISA'S TRASHING!

I did a “Trash The Dress” photo shoot tonight with Lisa and Tony. We met up and drove to Detroit and went to the Dequindre Cut. Google it for more information. Or search Flickr for a bunch of photos. Its is a 1.5 mile stretch of "trail" in Detroit, running from Eastern Market to the riverfront with some of the most amazing graffiti art around. We lucked out and met some graffiti artists willing to paint her dress and it made the photos even better! They were very cool about it and thought what we were doing was cool. It can be a little creepy going down there and some don’t recommend going alone but all I have ever bumped into are the artists and the homeless that live there. Or wait till next year because a non-motorized trail is being constructed along the old railroad bed so when it’s done go check it out. The developers say they will leave the graffiti as and “open air gallery.”

A few more photos HERE.

News Photographers Face Trial in Toledo

News Photographers Face Trial in Toledo for Covering Nazi Rally

Two professional news photographers are scheduled to stand trial in Toledo, Ohio, on September 26 following their arrests nearly two years ago while covering a rally by a small group of Nazis outside the Government Center building.

Both were arrested as they photographed the events of December 10, 2005, including not only the Nazis and the noisy but peaceful crowd of anti-Nazi protestors, but also the actions of the police officers. Police from 13 Ohio jurisdictions were mobilized to present, in the words of Toledo officials, a “show of force” with “zero tolerance” for the day. With nearly 1,000 members of law enforcement present, many on horseback, the police outnumbered both the Nazis and the protestors by approximately five-to-one. “The arrests were an attack on freedom of the press,” said the photographers’ attorney, Julie Hurwitz. “We believe the evidence will show that these professional journalists were arrested not because they violated the law, but because they were photographing an overly aggressive police response to citizens exercising their fundamental constitutional rights to protest. As a result of being arrested, they were prevented from doing their jobs of being the ‘eyes of the world,’ and fulfilling their roles as an integral part of our communication system by which the public obtains the necessary information to be informed participants in a democracy.” Hurwitz said, “my clients are guilty of nothing other than what New York Times editor Bill Keller said of the Times research assistant Zhao Yan, recently released from a Chinese jail, namely the ‘offense of practicing journalism’”]

The photographers, Jeffrey Sauger of Royal Oak, Michigan, and Jim West of Detroit, are both professional freelancers with many years’ experience working for a wide variety of national newspapers, magazines, and photo agencies. At the Nazi rally, Sauger was working for the European Pressphoto Agency, which distributes photos to newspapers around the world. West was working for the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit organization which, among other things, tracks hate groups across the country and publishes the highly respected magazine Intelligence Report, to which more than 60,000 law enforcement officers nationwide subscribe.

Sauger was arrested on a charge of “criminal trespass” as he stood in a media enclosure carrying professional cameras and lenses photographing the scene. Police charged that he lacked a “temporary media permit” that had been issued to some journalists earlier in the day. Arriving later, carrying his own press credentials, Sauger said officers had told him he didn’t need the pass.

West was arrested as he stood, alone, taking photographs near a line of horses that was being ridden past and through counter-protesters. He was charged with “failure to disperse.”

Charges of disorderly conduct against a third news photographer, Jeffrey Willis of the Toledo Journal, have been dismissed. Willis was also arrested while photographing the police response to a crowd of anti-Nazi protesters.

“This case is important because the news media was targeted for reporting on questionable governmental activities,” said Hurwitz. “One thing that distinguishes a democratic country is the fundamental right to freedom of the press. When that goes, our basic liberties are at stake.”

The trial will be held before Judge Lynn H. Schaefer. Jury selection will begin Wednesday morning, September 26, in Courtroom 7 of Toledo Municipal Court, 555 North Erie Street in Toledo. The trial is expected to last two to three days.

Background info URL's:

http://www.nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2005/12/toledo.html

http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/newswire/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001658917

DETROIT SUNSET

From a portrait shoot tonight.

MAKE-A-WISH RADIOTHON

I shot some photos for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Michigan during their radiothon today. They are such a great organization and I can only hope the small part I play in shooting photos for them helps in some way. Its the best way I know to give back. Donate money HERE!!!

STEVIE

I photographed Stevie Wonder in concert tonight for the Detroit News. We were told we would get 60 seconds during the first song to shoot, then 90 seconds. We got about 2 minutes but that is far from the three songs that use to be normal. I went to Caribou Coffee to transmit photos and then went back to the venue to go backstage for a short Q&A with reporters and shot a few portraits. I wanted to write more but I'm tired, its after 2:00AM. I'll post a couple concert shots and maybe write more when I get a chance to.

RANDOM IMAGES

STATE FAIR

CREATED AT animoto.com

CRAZY FRIDAY NIGHT

Wow what a crazy Friday night! I was working for the Det News last night and my first assignment was suppose to be a Snoop Dogg concert but that was cancelled because there wasn't a photo pass set up for a News photographer or something, I'm not sure. So I went to the Michigan State Fair to get some night shots which was my assignment tonight for them. I got there and was shooting, feeling like I was struggling to get some interesting shots. Also I must have looked creepy or something last night because three different times I tried to get the names of people I photographed and they said no. Anyway I get a call from the photo desk saying I needed to leave the fair and go to Pontiac for a battle of the band the News was sponsoring at the Arts, Beats and Eats festival. So sped up I-75 and got there in time for the last 2 or 3 bands and got the winner. I needed to transmit these photos to the photo desk before going to my midnight assignment at a bar in Detroit. But when I got in the car and could hear again I had a message from the reporter saying , "don't go to the bar its cancelled." So I got home, sent the band photos, everyone was happy and I got to bed earlier then I thought I would. I do still have to go back to the fair for more images tonight.

Horse show at the fair.

The packed midway at the fair.

Lead singer Matthew Kysia of the band Green Street who won the battle.

Green Street fans.

Almost a cool shot, I liked the hand up by the guitar. But I was to far with to short a lens held up and it was a little soft focus wise to submit to the paper, oh well, close.