Thirteen Ways to be a Green Photographer

I remember sitting in a lecture and being amazed at the beautiful printed landscapes of the Peak District that had been taken by the lecturer. Then being equally amazed at his next statement. I no longer make images of landscapes as they are being trashed and I feel it is wrong ethically (he was referring to the fact that it encourages tourism) I was impressed with his stance to say the least. But it has led me to consider how “Green” my photography is in a digital world when I found this article on PopPhoto

The good news: Digital photography has taken huge amounts of chemicals
out of our waste stream, including bleach and silver, not to mention
millions of plastic-coated prints. The bad news: Digital sucks down a
lot of electricity and requires new equipment, which consumes lots of
resources and creates considerable eco-impacts, usually far away. Here
are a few things all photographers can do to be greener.

1. Watch the Power Meter

With digital, you'll need to keep your power consumption under control
if you don't want to warm the planet: Every kilowatt-hour you use
produces about 1.4 pounds of the greenhouse gases that cause global
warming. Choose Energy Star-certified equipment, and turn off or put to
sleep your computer, display, printer, and scanner when you can. Invest
in a power meter like the Kill A Watt to keep tabs on your usage -- you
may be in for unpleasant surprises.

2. Choose Your Power

A digital studio, including your Mac Pro computer, your Epson Stylus
Pro 3800 printer, and your Nikon D80 charger, will consume hundreds or
thousands of kilowatt-hours of electricity a year. Make sure that power
is coming from renewable, non-carbon-polluting sources. Through your
utility, switch to wind, hydro, or other sources; it may cost a little
more, but rebates can help with that, and you're making a difference
where it counts, at the source.

3. Recycle Everything

A digital studio will still produce paper waste -- it makes up about a
third of our trash. Recycle every scrap; making a ton of paper from
waste requires about two-thirds less energy than from wood pulp.
Recycle ink cartridges (office stores and online retailers will give
you credit for empties) and, when necessary, electronics. Electronic
waste has harmful metals and chemicals; give it to a recycling plant
that will salvage for useful parts and not just dump it in a landfill.

4. Shoot Locally

Transportation accounts for one-third of the average American's "carbon
footprint" -- the CO2 and other greenhouse gases that contribute to
global warming. If you're typical, you're responsible for about 15,000
pounds of CO2 a year. One round trip to shoot Maui's jungle could
account for half of that.

5. Offset Your CO2

Can't stay home? Can't get your computer, scanner, and printer off the
grid? You can help offset your footprint by buying carbon credits via
companies such as CarbonFund.org and NativeEnergy. Your money will help create renewable-energy sources and meet other conservation goals.

6. Conserve Energy

The basic energy tips you're practicing in your nonphoto life will work
in the studio, too. Using compact fluorescent bulbs and taking a degree
or two off the thermostat in winter (and adding a degree in summer)
will save energy and keep hundreds of pounds of CO2 out of the
atmosphere.

7. Unplug It All

Rechargers and other equipment left on standby create phantom loads
that waste megawatts every year. Unplug rechargers and power down
anything you're not using that has a little green or red light on it.
You'll save money and keep CO2 out of the atmosphere.

8. Watch the Chemicals

Processing in a darkroom? Use chemicals less harmful to the
environment, such as Kodak's Xtol and other ascorbate (vitamin C)
developers. Manufacturers say quantities you use at home can be
disposed via your sewer. Check silvergrain.org for nontoxic solutions.

9. Find Greener Options

Explore recycled papers such as Red River Paper's Green Pix, use
rechargeable batteries (NiMH is better than NiCd), and, if you print a
lot, buy ink in bulk rather than blowing through plastic cartridges.
Extra credit: Get a solar-powered battery charger.

10. Be a Responsible Consumer

Vote for the environment with your wallet: Ask camera, paper, and film
manufacturers about environmental efforts, from recycling to energy use
to materials.

11. Shoot the Change You Want in the World

It's not just how you shoot, it's what you shoot. Think about how your
images can represent solutions or illuminate a new angle on an
environmental problem.

12. Spread the Word

Small steps add up when millions join in. Tell two friends about your
new, greener way of looking at photography. They'll tell two friends,
and they'll tell two friends, and so on, and so on, and so on...

13. Make It Last

A long-lived camera is environmentally friendly. Do your research, buy
great stuff, and treat it right: It takes a great deal of materials,
energy, and pollutants to make a new camera, and pretty much zero to
keep your current one in tip-top shape.

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Edward Burtynsky's Silent Persuasion

Police Stop and Search

Abuse of Police Powers and diminishing Human Rights

Last Saturday I was in London looking for interesting doors to photograph and went to the Whitechaple area that has an interesting mix of old architecture with a backdrop of very modern buildings.

I just wondered the streets seeing what I could find with a camera around my neck and had no precise plan or agenda.

I had found several already in the bag and eventually spotted some run-down buildings behind a school and worked my way around to them looking for the street it was on, which I found without to much effort.

One door was painted badly and the side window was missing its glass and had been replaced with beer cans. I went down a narrow side street and there was a sofa on the pavement that I used while I head a drink. After a short rest and refreshment I completed circling the building by going around the block and barley noticed a police van parked up that appeared empty.

I carried on with my mystery tour not finding much of interest in the area I was now in and an hour later I was back near the street with the run-down building and decided to take a seat at the bus stop while I re-thought my non existent plan.

I noticed two police officers come out of the side road I had previously been on and where the police van had been parked up, one a male police sergeant and a WPC.
They started to watch me and at first it didn't bother me, I was trying to work out what they were doing. Then they started to make notes while looking at me they must have been there for about five minutes some other people passed that they half seemed interested in. "May be they were looking for a suspect?" I thought to myself when the police backed of and went back, thinking no more of it, I went back to re-organising myself and went into chimp mode while I looked at what I had got on the camera's playback feature.

I looked up and now saw a few people had gathered and started to look down the street, something was happening; so I got of my perch and had a nose, I could see nothing of interest but about five or six police officers near the van they had parked and the two police officers I had seen earlier about fifty yards down the road from where I was stood, but on the other side.

I decided to take a walk down a bit further to get a better view, it was not as if the gathered crowd were discussing what they had seen, there was no excitement, just curiosity as to why there were police.

As I got to about forty to forty five yards the police sergeant came over and intercepted me. He asked what I had been doing, "photographing doors!" came the reply with half a smile on my face as I knew he was wanting a much better understanding of why was I photographing doors, the response came "doors" he said with a puzzled look on his face. I explained further and in detail which he accepted and asked me for some identification.

I pulled out my Press Card for him and he looked at the details in detail "odd I thought, normally its just a quick glance" I was expecting this to go all the way and ask for my card to be verified by the Gatekeeper, which would have been a first "what was my verification number"...concentrating hard and trying to bring it up from the depths of my mind, while he studded it.

Then a realisation of understanding hit me as I spotted a Police Photographer at the bottom of the street, it was a FIT team (Forward Intelligence Team) that collect information on things like football gangs, Animal Rights and just about any one who goes on a demonstration or protest, blanket intelligence gathering is what they do as far as I am aware.

I had seen them before and recently at the Climate Camp protest at Heathrow and they have never shown a blind bit of interest in me and they have often nodded goodbye when I was bugging out, I have been stopped and searched before too, a quick look in my camera bag and a flash of my press card and that's been it.

The police sergeant asked me for my address and I asked him why he needed it, his reply was a shock "I can't remember the exact words as he had instantly turned from a curios cop to nasty cop in the blink of an eye, and I was still in shock over the change" but he was threatening to arrest me and pointed out that my camera gear will be seized as evidence to which will take considerable time to get back.

I offered to show him what pictures that were on there, he wasn't interested, replying I could have switched memory cards or deleted the images earlier (I assume he was referring to when I was at the bus stop) "Images of what I asked?" in a demanding and raised tone; all I got was silence and a glaring stare...
Eventually I responded that if he phoned the verification line for the press card he could confirm my details, a further silence and glare followed...the WPC had now crossed the road ready to back him up as she was stood to my half right

I had now been stood there for about ten minutes while the sergeant and the WPC were making notes about me from across the road as they were filling out the search form, that he did not want to give me.

The police photographer was photographing people at the bottom of the street and occasionally trying to get a shot of me from the bottom of the street on a 80-400mm zoom, that I did my best to deny him (it was all I could do as a protest at the time) he eventually realised I was serious when I said I wanted a copy of the form that he was probably kicking himself for by telling me I was entitled to a copy.

He explained briefly the form and gave it to me and headed down the street to the other police assembled as I stood reading what he had written.

Under the heading 'Grounds for Search or Reason for Stop' he had filled in "Subject in possession on long lens Nikon camera and paying close attention to police asked why he was doing that he accounted for his whereabouts and actions" That's it... me paying close attention to the police...no actually it was the other way around....had I taken any photos of the police, no

So carrying a Nikon with a medium lens was cause for a stop and search, now that is extremism in my book, just what are you allowed to carry and wear these days

I waked down to the end of the street where the police photographer was. There was a bunch of people, normal and respectable looking, waiting to get in I asked them what was happening, "One replied it was a public meeting against an arms fair."

Peace protesters, how ironic I thought that these people are trying to stop the arms trading, arms that eventually end up in the hands of terrorists potential enemies, that the police and security services try to find and stop, yet the police are trying to intimidate the peace protesters from trying to get arms trading stopped.

What a Wonderful World

Garry Winogrand Video

One of the great photographers of our time
Garry Winogrand video