Re-Blog: 7 Ways to Be an Ethical Photographer While Traveling

The following is an incredibly insightful article written by travel expert Julia Austin on Planet Green's blog.

I happened upon the article while watching recent episodes of Dresscue Me on PlanetGreen.com. I hope to write more about Dresscue Me in the future. It's about a vintage boutique that makes it's living upcycling out-of-date fashion items!

Anyway, this particular article about travel photography really spoke to me, as it resounded with many of the experiences Josh and I had while in Europe this past winter and spring. We came in contact both with the joy that respectful lifestyle photography can bring and the mistrust that careless photography can cause.

Julia said it best, so I'll stop babbling and let you enjoy her work.

The best part about a trip might actually be looking at the photos after and sharing the stories behind photos with friends. And taking a photo in today’s world has become extremely simple.
You can take one while you text your friend what time to meet you at a café. But don’t forget—you create a world through your images. Just like you monitor which personal photos you put up on your social media pages like Facebook and Twitter, in order to give what you believe is an accurate and complete depiction of yourself, you must take this same care with photos of others that you take while traveling.

The tiniest camera phone can be snuck into a sacred place. If you wanted to, you could take a photo of just about anything. But, as always, with freedom comes responsibility. Here are a few tips on being a responsible, ethical photographer while traveling.

1. Unless you are at a public performance, parade or somewhere where the individuals expect to be on display, always ASK to take a photo. Sometimes language is a barrier, in which case simply smile, present the camera, make a motion to take a photo and see how the subject responds.

2. It’s tempting to pay your subjects to be in your photo, but this encourages a type of prostitution, so to speak. Individuals in that culture might then offer to pose for photographers in exchange for money, making their ordinary lives look more “photogenic” rather than portraying the reality of it.

3. Try to develop a relationship with an individual or a group. If you can just spend an hour or a week with them, they will grow a trust for you and usually want you to take photos of their life. Also, those photos will be more genuine because the subject is comfortable with you, and feels they are being in your photo, rather than imagining all the websites they may appear on . . .

Read the rest of the article on PlanetGreen.com!

Are You Not Entertained?: Comic-Book Heroes and Catharsis

I was planning on posting a review of The Dark Knight Rises after going to watch it with Josh last night. A lot of factors made me begin to feel less than excited about this upcoming project.

Everyone with a keyboard is going to be reviewing the film in the days to come. Won't people be tired of the hype? 

Do I have anything unique to say? 

In light of the tragic Aurora, CO shooting, how meaningful would a review of the movie really be?

I had almost decided that I just needed to get over myself and power through a detailed review when a friend from my literary and theater circles posted a link to the article Catharsis in a Cape on his Twitter. It was then that I knew that almost anything I had to say about The Dark Knight Rises would be redundant, for this NPR-written title had captured my feelings towards the movie with a single word--

Catharsis.

As a former English major, this word is pretty significant to me. In fact, in my mind it's one of the most powerful marks of good storytelling.

catharsis - n. A release of emotional tension, as after an overwhelming experience, that restores or refreshes the spirit.

I have so much respect for filmmakers, screenwriters, playwrights, and authors who can craft a story fraught with conflict and tension that climaxes at a point so powerful I can hear my pulse pounding in my ears--and then all of that stress comes crashing down on me in a moment of perfect resolution. Such resolution should make an audience feel cleansed, "refreshed."

I love leaving a theater feeling emptied of myself and full of nothing but story.

I had never before thought of the powerful role that such emotional release could play in society as a whole. Especially in light of the Aurora massacre, I thought this article was a flawlessly eloquent expression of why comic book heroes so powerfully affect the masses and what an impact they have on the emotional development of a culture.

So rather than attempting to restate these profound thoughts, I'm going to just direct you to the well-crafted article on the NPR website.

Enjoy! And I hope you enjoyed the movie as well.