Andreas Haugstrup Pedersen | solitude.dk

Last night we took a walk along the Charles River. The shore line on both sides of the river is one of my favourite things about Boston and I think the couple on the pier in the foreground were enjoying it too.

Tomorrow it's time to say goodbye to Boston for this round. The always friendly German flight attendants will make up for the sorry entertainment systems in Lufthansa planes as I make my way back to Denmark via Munich.

I don't have anything profound to say. I'm going to miss the city and I cetainly wouldn't mind living here again, but it's time for Brittany and I to make a life in Copenhagen for a while.

If you know of any affordable 1 1/2-2 room apartments in the greater Copenhagen area, let me know.

The rights to photograph in public has been increasingly threatened in recent years, most often by ill-meaning security guards who are trying to prohibit photography of building facades. On Tuesday Andy Carvin was quote-unquote “almost arrested” as he was taking 20-minute panorama photographs inside the main hall of Union Station in Washington D.C. Despite Andy’s wish to play the victim and mentions at both BoingBoing and Thomas Hawk (who often post legitimate stories of photographers being harassed for no reason) I believe that he broke the first rule of photography: Don’t be an asshole.

I have experienced photographers who break this rule, and I’ve broken the rule myself unintentionally a couple of times. It’s the dude with the giant camera who kept pushing hard into my back at the Hot Chip concert because he felt he was entitled plow his way to the front of the stage to take pictures all night with no regard for the people who paid to dance. It’s also the moron who completely blocked the bike path on the freeway overpass with his tripod forcing me into a heavily trafficked road at night.

Andy was a mild version of those guys on Tuesday. Photography is generally okay for non-commercial purposes in train stations, but don’t obstruct the flow of traffic*. He was not just using a small travel tripod, but a giant motorized monster tripod for 20 minute recordings. The legal issues are irrelevant compared to the humbleness photographers with entitlement issues seem to lack sorely. Photographers need to be mindful of the environment they are trying to capture. If you are going to spend long amounts of time taking photograph with space shuttle equipment, just ask for permission. That’s called common courtesy.

Moreover, when the employees who manage a space ask you to leave, just leave. Don’t tie up the time of four employees and create an even bigger disruption of the traffic flow. I don’t care how entitled you think you are: Don’t be the asshole photographer with the giant tripod or the complex camera system. You’re calmly being asked to stop. Go somewhere else and take pictures there instead—or in Andy’s case, test your new equipment elsewhere.

To better illustrate my point you can replace “Union Station” with “local church during service” and “security guards” with “choir boys” in Andy’s post. The Church is most definitely a public space and you are within your legal rights to take pictures there. But when you do it with a motorized tripod during service you’re still an asshole and when the choir boys ask you to leave because you’re disrupting service you don’t insist on hearing it personally from the bishop. It’s not about what rights you have. It’s about respecting the people around you.

And what’s with the Twittering? Has it really come to this? Do we really need instant validation of our actions from people on a website? Is this about standing up for your rights or about acting out to impress your internet friends?

The picture at the top is from last month when Brittany and I were quote-unquote “almost arrested”. I tried to photograph some silos by the river. We were on a private road (we got lost) and the silos were most likely classified as Sensitive Security Information. The Everett police was keeping an eye on the place and they did not appreciate cameras—not even vintage cameras from the 1970s. The photo is taken from the Andrew P. McArdle bridge which connects Chelsea and East Boston. It’s from the same trip, but obviously I have no photos of the silos. When we were asked to leave, we got in the car and drove away.

* The MBTA here in Boston revised their photo policy last summer to allow any non-commercial photography as long as you don’t use a tripod, monopod or other equipment that impedes the flow of traffic.

This is a lumiere video. The video contains no audio. Feel free to leave your own music running.

Yesterday I saw a cop walk into a Dunkin' Donuts and the lady next to me on the train was reading about cloth diapers. Today she wore purple nail polish and read Lolita.

Saw Cat Power (photo1, photo2) last night. Highly recommended, but not easily video-able. Opening before her was Appaloosa (photo1, photo2), a London/Paris based duo playing electro/pop/house. This video is a clip of Appaloosa's London half turning som knobs.

This is a lumiere video. The video contains no audio. Feel free to leave your own music running.

I'm still trying to figure out how to get good use of my 16mb memory card (here and here). My goal was to keep taking pictures until the memory card was full, but with only 8 frames to go some guy with a bluetooth headset needed to move his car and I had to move. We are left with 228 photos at half a second exposure. Next time I must try to do this in the daylight (19 secs; 11mb)

An 1980s Mercedes Benz and 1970s music — it's the only way to get from A to B. Vloggercue was awesome (despite stomach aches), but New York City was overwhelming as always. Boston afterwards was much more laid back. I'm ready to go back any time.