The key here is “noncommercial.” I work for a nonprofit and I like helping nonprofits. I’m happy to allow an underfunded organization to use my photos in their blogs or newsletters. But if someone uses my photos in the pursuit of profit (i.e. Mashable), than I require a piece of the action.

UPDATE

The photo has been removed. I received this response from the author via Twitter:

1. 
   jolieodell @nathangibbs Honest mistake – I generally look for CC pics licensed for commercial use! Changing the image now. 26 Apr 2011 from web in reply to nathangibbs

In July, I was fortunate enough to get the photo assignment to shoot presumptive presidential nominees John McCain and Barack Obama. They visited San Diego for the National Council of La Raza conference.

Barack Obama at the National Center of La Raza Conference

Obama delivered a speech punctuated by applause. But it was still a bit lukewarm compared to what I expected. I’d heard stories of his charismatic delivery and rockstar-like receptions. That was all there, I guess, but there was a lingering stress in the air. Obama needed to get defeated Hillary Clinton supporters excited about voting for him. He got loud cheers in reference to oppressive immigration raids, but applause was absent from his discussion of details: securing the border first, path to citizenship starts at the back of the line, fines for non-legal status, etc. When the speech was over, he shook hands with the students seated behind him and made his way slowly through the front edge of the crowd.

The press were given a sideline area at about half-court in the convention center’s large ballroom. My 70-200mm zoom lens only got me close enough for a decent medium-wide shot. I had to crop the shot above by 50 percent to get something usable. At this distance, my lens looked pretty weak compared to the pros bumping shoulders next to me — the ones you see at sports games with what look like space-age sniper rifles. I was disappointed that I wasn’t able to get closer and, more specifically, that we weren’t allowed to get any closer. The only concession was being taken two-by-two into the center aisle for about 60 seconds, once.

John McCain at the National Council of La Raza Conference

McCain’s appearance had a dramatically different tone. For starters, his wife Cindy McCain accompanied him on stage. It felt warmer than Obama’s solo performance, somehow less formal and more classy at the same time. I couldn’t help thinking McCain scored a few extra “family values” points with the Latino crowd. He spoke not as if he were trying to impress, but as if he were having a conversation with friends. He took questions from the audience after his speech. And after conference organizers said the Q&A session was over, McCain threw the microphone into the crowd to take another question.

Before the speech began, there were rumors that we’d be escorted in small groups to the front lines. Apparently the McCain people caught wind of photographer’s complaints and agreed to allow us better access than during Obama’s speech. The conference staff members I spoke with said the campaign staff set the rules in terms of press access, not the conference itself.

Conclusions

McCain’s performance was definitely the most interesting of the two candidates, not only in terms of his interaction with the crowd but in his campaign’s interaction with the press. But I’m not sure how much of a difference it makes in the end. Of the photos I uploaded to Flickr, Obama’s mediocre shots have been viewed more than twice as much as McCain’s more dynamic photos. And of McCain’s, two-thirds of his views come from the photos of his wife Cindy.

We don’t learn anything terribly valuable from these numbers. Yeah, Obama has more buzz than McCain. And on average, Cindy McCain has more than either of them. Perhaps it’s really only an indicator of the superficial nature of the statistical mob. We can only hope the people vote based on their version of who will be the best president, not merely on who will be a best looking one.

Having spent quite a bit of time in Tijuana, I’ve spread my photos across various Flickr groups. When one of those groups decided to have a face-to-face meetup, I was excited. It would be the first time to meet Flickr contacts in Tijuana. And if past experience was any guide, it had promise.

I couldn’t make the 4 p.m. Friday gathering time, but knew they’d be at Playas de Tijuana until sunset. I arrived around 6 p.m. and cautiously walked to the meeting place with my gear. I wandered about a bit looking for a group with cameras, taking a few photos along the way.

Approaching the group, I recognized a few of them from their photos. After brief introductions, it was a relatively quiet walk along the beach. Noesh, even smaller than her “chiquita pero picosita” tagline, tripped over her son and Vanezia’s son at the water’s edge. Unbeknownst to me, I was at the front of a meta chain. I did my best to impress them with my Spanish, even though everyone is likely bilingual. It was a beautiful sunset and nice to chat a bit with these Tijuanenses.

Following the walking tour, Isha.Net* created a new group for Flickr meetups across Baja California. I’m looking forward to future meetups and the chance to meet those who weren’t able to make this initial gathering.

To each of you, Sërch, Gioser_Chivas, Xeelee, Isha.Net*, JoVaNnItA, Vanezia, Noesh, Griselda, Liam, Ibrahim, it was great to meet you.

Here’s the conversation:

(It’s not exactly an award-winning performance by yours truly, but I thought it was worth a posting for posterity’s sake.)

Much has progressed since this recording. Google has joined the effort to streamline updates, and those who have been updating the county maps will now be contributing directly to our Google map. In addition, a site from Governor Schwarzenegger, calfires.com, has embedded the map directly. Local CBS is linking to the map. Wired bloggers Michael Calore and Kevin Poulsen reported on KPBS’ use of Twitter and Google maps.

(Special props to Joe Spurr for pushing the use of Twitter and Google maps.)

KPBS News is using Twitter to post up-to-the-minute information as it comes in:

Check out this Google map for fire perimeter, evacuation shelters and residential evacuations:

My family in Escondido was evacuated but, thankfully, their homes are fine. Here are some of my brother’s pics:

Taken on the evening of 10/21/07. We were forced to evacuate the next morning. Escondido, CA. — Smokey Sunset, originally uploaded by prgibbs.

About 3:30AM looking southeast from Old San Pasqual. This is a very short distance from our house. Escondido, CA. — Fire!, originally uploaded by prgibbs.

An easterly view of our home just prior to our evactuation at approximately 6:30AM on 10/22/07. Escondido, CA. — Evacuation #1, originally uploaded by prgibbs.

About 7:30AM on 10/22/07 looking south on Orange Ave., Escondido, CA. — Orange Ave., originally uploaded by prgibbs.

About 8:30AM on 10/22/07. Looking southeast from my parent’s yard. This is a full color photo, not sepia. Escondido, CA. — Smokey Sky, originally uploaded by prgibbs.

Shortly after 9:00AM, we received another evacation notice. Me posing before we hit the road…again. Escondido, CA. — Evactuation #2, originally uploaded by prgibbs.

nathangibbs.com on iPhone, originally uploaded by Nathan Gibbs.

Photo taken, uploaded and posted here all from inside an Apple store using demo equipment (Safari on iPhone, Photo Booth on MacBook).

Primo set Nathan! I’m a photographer based in New Zealand putting together an exhibition on the topic. If you’d like to have some of your images included please check my website & let me know…

A few months after submitting some photos, the project started coming to life. Here are a few images from Geoff as the collage was coming together.

Mosaic V1!
For the Santos Cafe ‘mini-exhib’ I’ve been producing the shots onto various thickness PVC blocks at 100mm square. With the limited wall space at this venue I am only able to produce a mosaic of around 50 images though the main exhib will feature the rest of the group. There’s been a few late nights as it’s quite labour intensive but it’s looking sweet!

Will update more pics as it progresses…

Thanks again for all your shots & stories!

Originally uploaded by sole intentions.

Mosaic V1 contd…
Originally uploaded by sole intentions.

Mosaic V1 contd…
Originally uploaded by sole intentions.

See if you can spot this one of mine nestled in there. It’s one of my personal favorites, and ranks as #4 for interestingness (800 views, 11 favorites, 6 comments) of my photos on Flickr (also see #1, #2, #3). It also is holding steady at around #235 on Flickr’s Explore for the most interesting photos uploaded on December 5, 2006 (see all photos of mine that made Explore pages)

Read more about the exhibition and Geoff Budd in the article Exhibition with plenty of sole, check out the exhibition flyer (PDF), and if you’re near Auckland, New Zealand, the opening is this Tuesday Jan. 30 at Satellite Gallery from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

So, I went ahead and uploaded everything to YouTube, Google Video, and added self-hosted Flash versions here on the site. I added copy/paste embed code to give bloggers as many options as I possibly can to make it portable (a huge improvement over the quad-option WindowsMedia / Quicktime / Hi / Low choices that launch a popup window). I also adjusted the wording on the links in the header, re-ordered the sidebar, and added Related Posts to the bottom of each blog entry.

While the updates aren’t revolutionary, it does feel like a milestone. The videos are out there, really out there, with searchable transcripts on Google and everything. I was always hesitant about giving the videos away to places like YouTube, but in the end, the value of visibility is worth more than the $0 status quo while it sits on the shelf. And if the videos start going nuts on YouTube and Google, both have there’s always the option to charge if that made sense further down the line.

Check out Color Studies for a version of me two years ago talking about my work.

You should definitely check out their website. Once you get past the horizontal navigation, it’s a rich experience worth a lot of exploring. The exhibition opens May 21st and runs through September 3, 2006 at both the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego Downtown and La Jolla.

Tijuana is a new cultural hot spot. Influential publications in the United States, Europe, and Mexico have recognized the city as a vibrant site of innovation in the arts. Journalists, scholars, and critics alike celebrate Tijuana’s diversity of artistic production from art made with traditional media, such as, painting and printmaking to installation and conceptual art; from photography to digitally derived images; from street-level video to ambitious feature films; from utopian architectural proposals to streamlined and economic housing design. As the city’s newest art weekly recently announced, “Tijuana moves –and it’s everywhere.”

This exhibition will document the recent explosion of artistic experimentation in Tijuana, and will also explore the subtle shift in focus from art about the border experience to art that takes advantage of a new type of accelerated urbanism being pioneered in developing cities around the world.

Here’s an interview from KPBS These Days about the exhibition.

I got an email from Calder Lorenz, Director of Contributor Relations at NowPublic.com asking me for permission to attach this photo (from Flickr) to a story about Mexico extraditing drug lords to the U.S. I’m glad he at least asked and let me know he wanted to use (or share) it.

The image is (sort of) protected by a Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial – ShareAlike License. I’m a believer in sharing ideas. At this point in time, I am not overly concerned with making money on my creative work. That Creative Commons license is basically an “open source” license for media. If someone decides to use my photo/video to make money, they’ll have to negotiate with me before being legally free to use it. If it serves a non-profit or educational purpose, feel free use it or twist it into something new. Just let me know about it. If my work becomes so massively distributed and culturally important that I could actually make money on it, I suppose I might renegotiate with my conscience.

This is the first time I noticed NowPublic.com and I’m not sure yet what I think of it. Will it be a citizen journalism media frenzy? Or get clogged up with people ranking hot chicks as news?

“We are not just a digg, where we are focused on the editorial stuff, or a Flickr, where we are focused on photography, or YouTube, where it is just video, or Blogger, for that matter, where it is just written stuff. We are pretty much everything…. We organize all of the information around these news events and people can collaborate and report on news stories from whereever they are with whatever device they are using.” Michael Tippett, CEO Founder of NowPublic.com [source]

At a conference for public broadcasting in February, a panelist asked this question: Which is more real, 200 cellphone pictures of an event or a 30 second story by a reporter? The question draws attention to the bias any individual has in telling a story. Hundreds of people telling the same story adds credibility. So giving people a platform should be a great idea… but I’m still a little sceptical of the process. I still think there is a cultural divide of people who are consciencious and those who just don’t care. At the moment, NowPublic’s top stories are about burlesque, sex symbols, fashion, and tattoos. Go figure.

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