So I run across another article about photographers being harassed by police and find myself thinking once again that in these cases the officers should be given two choices. 1, admit to dereliction of duty and be drummed out. Or, 2, admit to incompetence and be taken off active duty and be sent back for retraining.

Really, even if terrorists were prone to standing around blatantly taking photographs, they are so outnumbered by actual professional photographers, amateur photographers, tourists, and anyone else you can think of who would be innocently taking photos that to use photography as an indicator that someone needs to be questioned is utter stupidity. The ratio of false positives to actual positives is going to be so lopsided that frankly I think even under the US Constitution's strict definition of treason, you could actually make an argument that it is indeed 'aid' to the enemy. Has even one person anywhere in the world who was stopped solely because they were taking photographs turned out to be a terrorist? How can this kind of time wasting on the part of those who are tasked with the job of protecting us be anything but dereliction of duty? Frankly I see it is no less intentional time wasting than if they were to find a quiet spot and pull out a game boy for a few minutes of Tetris or Mario.

Although at least that last option would have the positive of not being harassment that will cause a group of people to start viewing the police as an enemy.

Rant RE: Please Don't Blame FSU and A Great Day For Sports Photography?

So Scott Kelby held a contest recently on his blog. Send in your best sports photo for a chance to be Mike Olivella's assistant at an upcoming Florida State Seminoles game. Apparently this was beyond the pale as some so-called adult professional sports photographers decided it was worthy of throwing tantrums and crying until FSU would agree to tell Mike he couldn't allow the winner to use his Assistant's pass.

Really?

Do they have so little confidence in their skills that they feel that threatened by a guy with no media contracts being allowed on the sidelines? They have that little confidence in themselves and they dare call themselves professionals? They have so little confidence in themselves that they don't even wait to find out who will win or to look at the winner's submitted photo before starting to insist that the winner will be a trouble maker?

Frankly, as far as I'm concerned if they have that little confidence in their skills and that little maturity that they would whine until getting the chance to crush someone's dream opportunity -- then the appropriate action for them to take is to hand in their photography passes to FSU and go practice until they don't feel the need to act like a cranky toddler with no-sleep and a wet diaper.