As a photographer with an interest in photojournalism, I have to file this under "Not Cool".
We capture history. We also have the amazing ability to alter it.
Shades of 1984.
It is one of the most powerful images from the day Gerald R. Ford was laid to rest.
Twenty-one F-15 jets streak over the Grand Rapids sky at dusk in a tight group, the last trailing in the "missing man" formation.
Grand Rapids photographer Russell Climie posted the picture on the Web site for Tiberius Images, one of 103 pictures of Ford funeral events he put up for sale.
There is a reason Climie alone captured the image: It never happened.
"It's the digital world," Climie explained. "If you see it, will you believe it?"
Climie, 24, stationed himself at the Pearl Street bridge Jan. 3 to shoot the flyover.
He was surprised when the jets roared across in formations of four but were much more widely dispersed than he expected. So using a computer photo program, Climie squeezed the formations together.
It's a nice picture- and it never happened. But years from now, people will look on this photo and claim that they saw it- that is the power of still images. The mind will be tricked into believing it was real.
I have a huge problem with altering history like this. If the photo had artistic filters applied so it looks like artwork, that's different. It becomes a photo illustration. But this picture looks real- and that will prove a problem for the future. How can you believe what you see? Will it ruin photojournalism?
For the record, I have never altered any of the images you have seen from the past year, even when the temptation to do so was very strong. I also have never sold them (except for one, and I'm still waiting to hear on that)- if you see any of them out there somewhere, and you recognize them as mine, they were taken without permission. Let me know.
Chances are I would give permission for their use. Just ask; I'm pretty easy-going like that. But if someone, say Saul or other Republicans, takes them and alters them, I'm going to be pissed.
Which leads to another thing- Daily Kos has had to crack down on the use of images. I was dismayed at all the people who said, in effect, "Well, I'll just do it anyway and post them somewhere else". Look, I love diaries with images. I really do. But those images do represent someone's work; just as you wouldn't steal a whole article of someone's writing, why is it OK to swipe pictures?
It's a tricky area. I realized it early on when I started this blog- I took a few, but then stopped. Everything you see here was shot by me, or was made available for download by someone else.
There is a great diary on Kos with links to sites with free images- I hope that people use those, or at least try to ask permission for the others, although that might prove difficult.
My moment of hypocrisy is in posting these YouTube videos- that also is someone else's work, and as of now I doubt the performers/songwriters are collecting royalties on those plays. As a musician, too, I feel a twang of guilt here- but then again I have never made a dime off of blogging. Not like I'm getting rich posting videos. Lame justification, I know.
As of now, YouTube is encouraging it. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it. For now. If they say "stop", I will stop.
Hey, I'm not pure. I admit it. ;-)