Nice Timing
November 2, 2007 7:39 PM   Subscribe

 
Can you say PHOTOSHOP?
posted by WaterSprite at 7:42 PM on November 2, 2007


That last one is going to be LOLCATted in no time. Caption will be something like

O HAI HAZ YOU SEEN MY GRAVITY?
posted by George_Spiggott at 7:44 PM on November 2, 2007


OM NOM NOM NOM.
posted by knave at 7:47 PM on November 2, 2007


These are fun.

Can you say PHOTOSHOP?

There are plenty here that are not shopped. The great majority, I'd say.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:47 PM on November 2, 2007


Can you say PHOTOSHOP?

Why, photos like this can't exist?
posted by ORthey at 7:48 PM on November 2, 2007


Can you say TALENT and TIMING? This is good settings meeting the luck of the shutter.
posted by hal9k at 7:49 PM on November 2, 2007


I think it's a bit cruel to toss that orange cat into the water just to get a good shot.

Of course, Dali did stuff like that, too, so I guess that means it's "art".
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 7:52 PM on November 2, 2007


Some amazing photos there. Good find.
posted by HighTechUnderpants at 7:56 PM on November 2, 2007


It's called the Decisive Moment.
posted by Curry at 7:57 PM on November 2, 2007


the pic of the guy getting run over seems about a split second too late, in comparison to the rest.
posted by fuzzypantalones at 7:57 PM on November 2, 2007


They've forgotten this one by I. Russell Sorgi.
posted by Vic Morrow's Personal Vietnam at 8:01 PM on November 2, 2007 [3 favorites]


I'd also say they've forgotten what is probably the most famous "just the right time" photo ever: Falling Man.
posted by dobbs at 8:05 PM on November 2, 2007 [1 favorite]


There are plenty here that are not shopped. The great majority, I'd say.

No, but some. Sorry to be a killjoy.
posted by WaterSprite at 8:06 PM on November 2, 2007


Just came home from work, so tired can hardly type but bust my gut laughing and gawping with awe and enjoyment and horror and amazement at those photographs. Thanks crash. Ah, just realised writing that this post might be eponysterical.

Definitely favorited. wow.
posted by nickyskye at 8:11 PM on November 2, 2007


These sorts of photos are less rare than they used to be, primarily because of high-frame-rate cameras becoming more common. I think sports-shooters are all getting cameras nowadays that will shoot at 11 or 12 frames per second for extended bursts.
posted by pjern at 8:12 PM on November 2, 2007


No, but some. Sorry to be a killjoy.

Which?
posted by event at 8:25 PM on November 2, 2007


"I can tell from the pixels and from having seen quite a few shops in my time"
posted by fleetmouse at 8:26 PM on November 2, 2007


solopsist writes "These sorts of photos are less rare than they used to be, primarily because of high-frame-rate cameras becoming more common. "

That and the general public is a lot less afraid of pulling the trigger on action shots because of the extremely low marginal cost.
posted by Mitheral at 8:28 PM on November 2, 2007 [2 favorites]


Timing is everything, particularly in the case of amazing photography. Sometimes that means waiting through a whole sports game and getting lucky to catch just the right shot. Other times than means trudging through nature for weeks to get the perfect environmental photograph. Here are 25 examples of perfectly timed images from around the world and in various genres.
But most of the time, it means putting your camera in continuous mode :P
posted by delmoi at 8:39 PM on November 2, 2007


Who cares? Still fun.
posted by nkknkk at 8:40 PM on November 2, 2007


Had to add this one!
posted by azlondon at 8:49 PM on November 2, 2007 [25 favorites]


I don't take kindly to jackasses who steal photographs to make a juvenile attempt at explaining the concept of the decisive moment.

These pictures have copyrights. I can guarantee you the blog owner neither possesses nor has licensed any of them. So fuck him.

You want to see collections of amazing images? They make books full of them.

Hell, if these pictures rocked your socks, you'd probably get off on the sportsshooter.com contest winners' images. At least those are shown in a legitimate forum.
posted by TheGoldenOne at 8:59 PM on November 2, 2007 [3 favorites]


azlondon: wow. just, wow.
posted by Mach5 at 9:04 PM on November 2, 2007


My favorite in the genre.

Although this one is pretty famous and quite sobering.
posted by Partial Law at 9:05 PM on November 2, 2007 [6 favorites]


Reminds me of the fantastic INVISIBLE LIFEVEST shot (sadly, debunked by Snopes).
posted by rob511 at 9:07 PM on November 2, 2007 [1 favorite]


another blog with stolen images and no photo credits!

Bonus: the blog has ads meaning said blogger is making money off the images!
posted by photoslob at 9:14 PM on November 2, 2007


TheGoldenOne: Really? I enjoyed seeing those photos, it took, what, 30 seconds to look at all of them? I'm done, now, too, I will never have need to see them again.

I'm not going to pay $39.95 for that pleasure. It's just not that important. So the photographers you're in such a tizzy about haven't lost a cent.
posted by maxwelton at 9:14 PM on November 2, 2007 [3 favorites]


photoslob: Do you or anyone you know ever, ever click on adsense or similar ads? I never do and know no one who does. Hell, I have ad block, so I didn't even see them. So, again, no money changed hands.

It would certainly be better if the photos were credited but this idea that some poor photographer is eating stale crusts tonight because a lame blogger posted this menagerie is silly.
posted by maxwelton at 9:16 PM on November 2, 2007


Fuck copyright laws, but i want to know who the artists are!

Oh, an this photo beats capturing a flash and fireworks at the same time.
posted by dnial at 9:38 PM on November 2, 2007 [3 favorites]


needs about to die tag
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 9:39 PM on November 2, 2007


azlondon, I don't know what to say. That photo truly speaks for itself.
posted by Anything at 9:44 PM on November 2, 2007


No one is asking you to shell out $40 to buy a book, maxwelton. Ever heard of libraries? They're awesome. Free, even.

Not only are the pictures not licensed, there's no attribution.
Granted, I got over the thrill of seeing my name in print below a photo a long time ago.

I'm a freelance photographer. Intellectual property is literally my bread and butter. I'm not wealthy. If someone steals an image, they are literally stealing the clothes off my back and the camera from my hands. This isn't a hobby for shits and giggles. This is my career. This is how I make all of my money. It ain't much, but I'm willing to live near the poverty line to be a proud, patriotic member of the fourth estate.

Your profile says you're a "designer," max. I don't really know what that means, but it sounds creative. If you designed something- something you put hours, even days into; something that you were counting on being paid for because otherwise you'd have no income- and some guy came along and ripped it off... and to add insult to injury, failed to give you credit, how would you feel?

I'm sure photoslob could articulate this better than I.
posted by TheGoldenOne at 9:51 PM on November 2, 2007 [4 favorites]


mr_crash_davis.justgotowned.com.

Warning: some disturbing images.
posted by ibmcginty at 10:04 PM on November 2, 2007 [3 favorites]


You're doing it wrong!
posted by sourwookie at 10:14 PM on November 2, 2007 [2 favorites]


I thought this one was the most likely to appear.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:20 PM on November 2, 2007 [2 favorites]


I liked the last one better when there was a dog in it.
posted by stefanie at 10:30 PM on November 2, 2007 [1 favorite]


TheGoldenOne: I am a designer, and when I use photos in my designs, I buy them from photographers (or am granted permission to do so), I wouldn't dream of doing otherwise. But that's because I will make money from using them, and enjoy (and am obligated to) spread the "wealth" around when I do so.

That is a lot different than Joe Random thinking a photo is neat and posting it on their site. (I do find it annoying that there is no attribution...if there was attribution, I could at least find the original photographer if I liked their work and wanted to use it in a project.)

I've had sites completely ripped off. It's amusing when it's Joe Random, it's not amusing when it's Big Company, Inc. The latter get a note, the former I just laugh about.
posted by maxwelton at 10:40 PM on November 2, 2007 [1 favorite]


Photojournalist Eddie Adams' infamous Pulitzer Prize winning image of a captured Viet Cong executed during the 1968 Tet Offensive in Saigon was sheer luck reflex:
"Eddie Adams said, 'I just followed the three of them as they walked towards us, making an occasional picture. When they were close - maybe five feet away - the soldiers stopped and backed away. I saw a man walk into my camera viewfinder from the left. He took a pistol out of his holster and raised it. I had no idea he would shoot. It was common to hold a pistol to the head of prisoners during questioning. So I prepared to make that picture - the threat, the interrogation. But it didn't happen. The man just pulled a pistol out of his holster, raised it to the VC's head and shot him in the temple. I made a picture at the same time.'
It was a decisive moment for everyone involved:
Eddie would cover other wars and revolutions - and there were many other pictures from Vietnam - but the sensational Pulitzer Prize- winning photo of a Vietcong summarily executed on a Saigon street is what comes to mind when discussing his work. It became - often to his annoyance - his signature picture.

The story of the photo has been told and retold and is available elsewhere. Not always included, however, is how the picture has haunted Eddie for decades afterward.

"Two men died that day," Eddie says, "the Vietcong and Col. Loan who shot him. Pictures do not always tell the full story," Adams says, "and this is one case where that is true."

Not many know that Loan was highly respected by his men and by the Vietnamese, Adams says. He was an educated man dedicated to the survival of his nation. Earlier on the day he shot the VC his aide, his aide's wife and his aide's children were executed by the Vietcong in the fury of the Tet offensive.

Adams came to know Loan in the weeks after the picture was made, but Loan held no grudge. He commented only that his wife said he should have confiscated Eddie's film. Loan was promoted later but in the end had to flee Vietnam and take up residence in the U.S.
Without the eyes of a skilled photographer behind them, cameras are blind.
posted by cenoxo at 10:44 PM on November 2, 2007 [1 favorite]


Intellectual property is literally my bread and butter. I'm not wealthy. If someone steals an image, they are literally stealing the clothes off my back and the camera from my hands.

I am literally exploding with rage.
posted by stammer at 10:47 PM on November 2, 2007 [10 favorites]


I'm literally wiping stammer's guts off my shirt. Yuck.
posted by knave at 10:55 PM on November 2, 2007


I am literally exploding with rage.

Stop being so dramatic - this is teh Internets. I'm no fan of the anti-copyright crowd, but in this day and age it's to be expected that some putz with a blog is going to host images without permission. It's just reality.

Wouldn't it be better if photographers, while still being protected by copyright, also watermarked their photos? Porn producers do this all the time. So when people steal their content, it actually becomes a viral marketing channel - the best kind there is.

While copyright should be protected and respected, artists and content producers have to be more proactive and must find solutions where they benefit from this new reality.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:06 PM on November 2, 2007 [1 favorite]


literally my bread and butter

Heh.
posted by event at 11:13 PM on November 2, 2007


kirkaracha wrote: I thought this one was the most likely to appear.

(If only Robert Capa's 1936 Fallen Soldier had changed the world.) Accusations that he staged this image are untrue: see Proving that Robert Capa's "Falling Soldier" is Genuine: A Detective Story.
posted by cenoxo at 11:15 PM on November 2, 2007


Stammer- I'm not really following you... What I wrote wasn't an angry tirade, it was an attempt to explain what the theft of intellectual property means to the owners.

kokuryu- you're certainly right about being proactive, and I do realize that if you bother to create, other people are going to scam your shit. China has a shadow economy based on this concept. I just don't think it's the greatest thing to knowingly support people and websites that steal content. I'm sad when I see it on the blue. I usually think a lot higher of the folks on here.
posted by TheGoldenOne at 11:19 PM on November 2, 2007


Psst, GoldenOne and KokoRyu, check this out.
posted by knave at 11:25 PM on November 2, 2007


I enjoyed these, but I want to see the photos that were snapped at the exact moment after the ones featured.
posted by amyms at 11:50 PM on November 2, 2007


Figuratively speaking, you can't take these guys literally. Or perhaps vice versa.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:58 PM on November 2, 2007


I enjoyed these, but I want to see the photos that were snapped at the exact moment after the ones featured.

They're all of the respective photographer's shoes.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:35 AM on November 3, 2007


If the guy in the wakeboarding picture weren’t wearing any pants, it would be just like the ending of almost every News from Lake Wobegon story.
posted by tepidmonkey at 2:13 AM on November 3, 2007


Wow. The just got owned thing was so fucking annoying I'm going to go out, violate some copyrights and then find a couple freelance photographers and kick them in the groin just to even out their cosmic debt.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 2:41 AM on November 3, 2007


TheGoldenOne: Stammer is playing on your over (and incorrect) use of the word "literally". Intellectual Property is *not* literally your bread and butter. It may figuratively be so, but the only thing which is, literally, your bread and butter, is, well, bread and butter, I guess. And people are not literally stealing the shirt from your back unless they come up to you, knock you to the ground and take the shirt from your back. Otherwise, they're literally infringing on your intellectual property, costing you income which means you are less likely to be able to afford a shirt for your back in the future...

Literally is highly overused by people who think it is a modifier which implies greater truth. It literally is not.
posted by benzo8 at 3:09 AM on November 3, 2007 [7 favorites]


That truck roll over in the http://mr_crash_davis.justgotowned.com/ site is the 1st one that I thought of. The look on the driver's face is superb.

I've got the name of the photographer tucked away in a scrap book somewhere - I first saw it pre interimnet days.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 4:18 AM on November 3, 2007


Surprised not to see this one of an Alabama football player's number literally being knocked off his helmet.
posted by Rock Steady at 5:36 AM on November 3, 2007 [2 favorites]


I took this one at a Cubs game a couple years ago. I had no idea he lost his bat until I got home and uploaded the SD card to my computer.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 7:20 AM on November 3, 2007


Better size here.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 7:22 AM on November 3, 2007 [2 favorites]


benzo8: costing him to label potential income as unrealized income.
posted by nobeagle at 7:26 AM on November 3, 2007


jebus cat is holy
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 7:52 AM on November 3, 2007 [1 favorite]


There was an interesting take on the 'decisive moment' a day or two ago on A Photo Editor.
posted by bradbane at 9:04 AM on November 3, 2007


The blog owner that stole these intellectual properties should be ripped apart, and have his brainstem and spinal nerve removed and all the parts that are at this point useless can be removed as well until we have just a bit of nervous tissue left, disembodied but conscious and pleading for mercy. Then we should fashion an audio cable around it, and give it to the rightful copyright holders so they can play their Mahler through the nervous system. They say this actually produces a slightly higher sound quality, with the additional benefit of continuous pain for the hapless thief.
posted by 31d1 at 9:24 AM on November 3, 2007 [4 favorites]


Literally is highly overused by people who think it is a modifier which implies greater truth. It literally is not.

Well, it's definitely overused, but it is also a modifier which implies greater truth (well, I'd say emphasis). TheGoldenOne's use of the word might be considered excessive and/or unnecessary, but it wasn't wrong.

Correcting people for their use of the word literally has become the new pointing out that the song "Ironic" isn't ironic to me. The correction has become far more annoying than the original offense.
posted by lampoil at 9:39 AM on November 3, 2007


I literally could care less what lampoli thinks about how properly to use words incorrectly.

Or am I just being ironic?
posted by ibmcginty at 9:49 AM on November 3, 2007


Or maybe you literally couldn't care less?
posted by danb at 10:05 AM on November 3, 2007


Surprised not to see this one of an Alabama football player's number literally being knocked off his helmet.
posted by Rock Steady at 5:36 AM on November 3 [+] [!]


Dude, those are hit points. Critical strike!
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 10:11 AM on November 3, 2007 [7 favorites]


I don't correct people, because it's an assy thing to do, but every time someone misuses "literally", it hurts me as if they had flicked me on the nose. Please, people, stop flicking me on the nose.
posted by everichon at 11:39 AM on November 3, 2007


TheGoldenOne writes "If someone steals an image, they are literally stealing the clothes off my back and the camera from my hands."

Well, I think a blog posting of pictures without royalties is akin to someone making a mix tape. If you want to stick to the letter of the law, there is copyright infringement, but there is little to no chance anybody was really harmed by it. I wish the blogger had bothered to attribute the photos, at least, but images fly around the internet faster than music. Kinda hard to control.
posted by krinklyfig at 11:43 AM on November 3, 2007


I'm a shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaark!!
posted by Espoo2 at 11:49 AM on November 3, 2007


I wish I could find the series of photos that Robert Landsburg took of the initial lateral blast during the Mount St. Helens eruption. The blast killed him shortly after his sequence of a dozen or so photos was taken.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 11:51 AM on November 3, 2007 [1 favorite]


It's not a literal literally, it's a metaphorical literally.
posted by cortex at 12:01 PM on November 3, 2007


George_Spiggott writes "That last one is going to be LOLCATted in no time."

That last one is photoshopped. The cat is from this image.
posted by krinklyfig at 12:03 PM on November 3, 2007 [1 favorite]


lol cat
and lol cat
posted by weezy at 12:05 PM on November 3, 2007


It's not a literal literally, it's a metaphorical literally.

So you're saying that metaphor is where it is literally a viking.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 12:08 PM on November 3, 2007


Crazy talk, ROU. That's never getting off the ground.
posted by cortex at 12:09 PM on November 3, 2007


This is nothing without the picture of Lee Harvey Oswald being assassinated. I'm too lazy to google and link to it, but I think everyone here has seen it.
posted by marble at 7:12 PM on November 3, 2007


...images fly around the internet faster than music. Kinda hard to control.

The fact that it's "hard to control" doesn't absolve people from the moral responsibility of, at the very least, attributing authorship.

the picture of Lee Harvey Oswald being assassinated. I'm too lazy to google and link to it

I think it probably took less time for me to Google and link to the image than it did for you to type and post your comment about being too lazy to link to it!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:34 PM on November 3, 2007


flapjax at midnite writes "The fact that it's 'hard to control' doesn't absolve people from the moral responsibility of, at the very least, attributing authorship."

It might not be possible to make this blog post if you had to attribute. Between email and the web all of these images must exist on a gazillion servers by now. Serious question: How the heck would you track down the original photographer(s) and 'shop artists? I've encountered this problem on numerous occasions and I've never figured out how to solve it. I mean it's easy for Eddie Adams' vietcong image but how are you going to figure out where the guy or cat falling into the water image originated?
posted by Mitheral at 11:09 PM on November 3, 2007


Had to add this one!

Here is another one from the same genre.
posted by Mr_Zero at 11:23 AM on November 4, 2007


I did not see this one in the thread, but I can't believe it was not posted by someone already. (warning - horror of war)
posted by Mr_Zero at 11:33 AM on November 4, 2007


You missed the giant comment about it. Col. Loan later moved to the United States and ran a pizza place in a strip mall near where I grew up. I saw him once; it was pretty surreal.
posted by kirkaracha at 12:05 PM on November 4, 2007


The sled one is my fave.

The surfing one is totally unremarkable.
posted by dontoine at 12:37 PM on November 4, 2007


Why is copyright so important in this thread? I can see at least ten breaches of copyright on the front page right now [videos uploaded to YouTube] but there's no whinging in those threads. Lighten up or take it to MeTa.
posted by meech at 1:52 PM on November 4, 2007


If someone steals an image, they are literally stealing the clothes off my back and the camera from my hands. [emphasis mine]

This is just false.

(This is the third time today I've posted that exact text. Are people taking crazy pills today?)

What I wrote wasn't an angry tirade, it was an attempt to explain what the theft of intellectual property means to the owners.

It kind of was. And just for your edification, you do realize that the only way I can steal your intellectual property is to fraudulently transfer ownership of it to myself, right? (And furthermore, you realize that that hasn't happened, right?)
posted by oaf at 8:51 AM on November 5, 2007


Of course, Dali did stuff like that, too, so I guess that means it's "art".

More of a Halsman thing, jump shots. I consider Dali Atomicus to be a collaboration between Halsman and Dali.
posted by enfa at 7:17 AM on November 9, 2007


« Older Fixing the Shadows   |   Startling Facts About Limbless Beauties Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments