Nice Day At 5th Street Market

Burn Magazine

Pretty cool online photo magazine. Has some great stuff. http://www.burnmagazine.org/

Softball Senior

Ducks and Fading Sunlight

North Eugene Girls u14 Photo Montage

Sunset Over The City

Just a shot of the fleeting sun as I was scouting a rooftop location for an upcoming portrait shoot.

Senior Portrait On The Rails

OK, One Of My Kid's Photos From The Long Jump

Girl's District Long Jump Champ

Tough shooting at the 4J District Track Finals. Spent 6 hours roasting in the sun. Got some decent shots during the field events, but was forced to the south stands during the running events. The track marshalls were pretty nasty this year. Got moved off the infield with a handful of other photographers. Oddly enough, the marshalls then let selected photographers back into the infield to shoot. However, the criteria used to determine admittance was whether or not the marshall personally knew you (friends in / strangers out / credentials don't matter). They used the same criteria towards the end of the track meet when they "cleared" the south grand stands. They never gave a reason for removing everyone including photographers for the last half hour of the meet. They did however elect to allow one older lady and her husband to stay because they were friends of the marshall. Basically the closing of the stands and infield ban ended the shooting. I ended up with no shots of any of the relays.

I also found several of the marshalls to be less than polite in dealing with the kids that were running in the afternoon. Why is it old men with a little authority feel the need to bu rude to the kids. Couple that with the arbitrary enforcement of policy and you get a less than pleasant memory for the kids.

Amtrak Photo Contest

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Photographer's As Terrorists?

The 9/11 terrorists didn’t photograph anything. Nor did the London transport bombers, the Madrid subway bombers, or the liquid bombers arrested in 2006. Timothy McVeigh didn’t photograph the Oklahoma City Federal Building. The Unabomber didn’t photograph anything; neither did shoe-bomber Richard Reid. Photographs aren’t being found amongst the papers of Palestinian suicide bombers. The IRA wasn’t known for its photography. Even those manufactured terrorist plots that the US government likes to talk about — the Ft. Dix terrorists, the JFK airport bombers, the Miami 7, the Lackawanna 6 — no photography.

Just a Shot From My Team's Tot Soccer Camp

Sitting On Top Of the City

Toned With Copper

Print toned with a copper treatment.

From The Stobist DVD

Taking Photographs In Public (British Style)

Knowing Your Rights As a Photographer

Knowing your rights as a photographer is key when shooting in public places. In today's scaremongering environment it is almost enevitable that at some point you will find yourself in some sort of confrontation if you photograph in public. I have found myself confronted by rent-a-cops, federal marshalls, business owners, and local police for shooting pictures in public places. Photographers across the country are facing increasing suspician and hostilty.

Most confrontations arise from the shear ignorance of public and even law enforcement. I have had the rent-o-cops from Symantech software tell me "you can't photograph our building". When you ask "really? Why not?". The general response is that it is illegal without their permision. I typically just say "you're absolutley wrong" hand them a copy of the flyer above and keep shooting.

The Federal Marshall's at the new courthouse in Eugene pulled the same crap. Even threatened to arrest me if I did not stop photographing. The funny thing is, they are talking about arresting me, but can't think of a charge. Again, I typically just hand them the flyer to read and go about my business. With one exception it has gotten them off my back.

Here is a link to a pdf version of the flyer http://www.krages.com/ThePhotographersRight.pdf . It has saved me loads of grief having a couple of copies in my camera bag. Although I it does not work with agressive and boderline illiterate types. Also here is a link to a great website dealing with harrasment of photographers http://www.nycphotorights.com/wordpress/ .

Cricket Wireless Doesn't Suck After All

To my utter shock I actually got a live body with Cricket wireless on the phone. Not only an actual person but local to boot. It seems that Cricket's local corporate store actually has a person that has some contact and oversight of the Cricket wireless franchise stores. She even seemed to care about the damage being done to the company's reputation.

I am happy to report that we came to an agreement. I paid $60 ($5 more than I agreed to pay the franchise store to flash the LG8600), and they provided a Samsung flip phone (not as nice or as durable as the 8600). Again, not perfect, but acceptable.

Then this morning I got a call from Cricket's main office to chat about my issues with the Franchisee. He credited my account for 1 months free service on all three phones. In addition and more importantly to me, he is passing the the information down the line to the guy who handles the indirect dealers.

The lesson that I am taking away from this experience is that I will make sure that I am doing business with Cricket's "corporate" from now on. They have a vested interest in making sure you are treated properly. After all they are the ones shelling out millions in advertising to establish their brand.

Playfull Black & White Boudoir Shot

Cricket Wireless Customer Service Hell

The phone saga continues! Today I went back down to the 7th street store to see what they were going to do to solve the problem. The answer: less than nothing! The new manager refused to give any information at all. Like who the actual store owner is, company name, insurance carrier, contact information, or even a copy of the police report! UNBELIEVABLE!

On the corporate end things are no better. There seems to be no way out of Cricket's phone tree trap. One of the phone supervisors finally gave me an email address to use to complain. It came back no longer in service. It think I would rather have a tooth pulled than deal with this company. Now it's not even about the money (phone value), it's about getting screwed by the experts! More to come.

Cricket Wireless Sucks Rant!

Just thought I would put out the word to avoid Cricket Wireless like the plague! They have the worst customer service of any cell company I have ever dealt with. That is saying a lot considering I have had Sprint and AT&T!I just finished a 42 minute wait on hold to speak to an actual human in "customer service" (insert derisive eye rolling and chuckle here).

So here is the background. Around Christmas we opened an account for the wife and my two teenage girls. It seems like a decent deal for the unlimited everything plan. Never mind the nickle and diming nature of getting set up with Cricket, as well as the overpriced phones they offer.

Now my youngest damaged her phone. Totally her fault. Instead of shelling out a bunk of money for another new phone I decided that I would just take one of my LG 8600 phones from my business that I have as a backup in case my Blackberry goes down, and have it flashed for Cricket service. Well to start with I am told that to do it they are going to charge me $40 plus $15 line fee, for a total of $55. Sounded a little overpriced but I said fine. Well they can't do it right now, but I can leave it with them and when the manager returns with the proper cables, they will do it and then give me a call.

Three days later, no call. My wife stops in to pick up the phone and pay for the service. Oops, they can't locate the phone. Seems Ty (the fired employee) stole several phones. Now they said they would give my kid their cheapest refurb (garbage phone) and only charge us $20 plus the $15 activation fee. I am thinking no it should be a refurb of equal quality. Well now I have to talk to the manager, who, by chance is not there. Oh, and you can't call her because the location does not have a phone.

Tried to call Cricket and found out that despite the very prominent CRICKET WIRELESS sign, it is actually independently owned (franchise). However, unlike any other franchise, there is no one to take your case too in the event that the franchisee acts like a total "TOOL"! I am amazed that a company spending millions of dollars to build a brand has no mechanism to regulate and protect the brand from the actions of the franchisee.

So now I prepare to slep back down to the Cricket hovel on 7th street to again do battle! Do yourself a favor and avoid the drama. Avoid Cricket Wireless like the BLACK DEATH!

Soft and Seductive