Oregon

Newfoundland

San Jose Found Objects

Strange things are afoot at the Circle K.

-Bill and Ted

Goodbye ASMP

Sure was a good idea
'Til greed got in the way

-Bob Dillon

I've been a member of the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) since 2003, but I won't be renewing my membership this year.

ASMP supports the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) which would destroy the internet as we know it if enacted. This short sighted bill (H.R. 3261) is supported by virtually all of the big media corporations and would give them the ability to effectively censor the internet through government intervention. While I'm in favor of protecting the rights of the creator, this ham-fisted bill goes far beyond that, giving control of the internet to these huge media corporations. Worse, it's set up to be fast-tracked through congress. My problem is that Columbia may decide to come after me for using the opening quote, or they might decide to shut my hosting company down. And there are the security issues around DNS blocking that this bill requires.

The innovation we've come to expect as a result of the openness of the internet is at stake. ASMP supports SOPA. I will not fund an organization that supports this misguided legislation.

Do something about it here.

Midwest United States

Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh has a wealth of great old buildings from the first half of the 20th century, largely financed through the steel, oil, and rail industries. I spent a very hot and humid series of days in Pittsburgh ducking into these buildings to escape the heat. They simply don't make building like this today.

Sanctuario de Chimayo

Southern California Desert

San Diego

Budapest

Austin

Seems like we keep ending up in Texas. Back in the hill country again, but this time with a little more time to enjoy Austin.

Compost

Things have been pretty quiet at The Traveling Photographer lately. Thanks to the current state of the economy, there's just not much travel going on. The thought of trying to get a large amount of professional camera gear through European customs after recent events is also rather discouraging. Here at The Traveling Photographer, we have quite a different take on the term "pants on fire".

We've decided to use this time to give some thought on the direction of this work and the best way to distribute and encourage the use of these photographs. Here's a few things that we're doing:

• HubisPhoto.com is gone. Thanks to everyone for pointing out the broken link. The new site is WaltHubis.com, where we will have a merchant site soon for purchasing big prints of these photographs (those of you who have visited the world headquarters of The Traveling Photographer at the Matoobis chalet know what we're talking about).


• All of the photography that was on the HubisPhoto site is now available for anyone to use at Flickr. All of that photography - and much more - is available for commercial or personal use for free. We've tried to use the least restrictive licensing method possible, and pictures are beginning to show up in some very interesting places.


• There will be a few new Squidoo lenses for Markgräflerland Dreams (Badenweiler and the joys of the Black Forest) and another having to do with German schnapps. We're working on these now (especially the schnapps research).


• Planning some photo trips - this year we plan to be in San Francisco, Texas, Italy, and Germany. We're also looking at good opportunities locally.

We're taking some time to take a new approach to this work and make it more meaningful and useful for our readers. Stay tuned....

Texas Hill Country

South Dakota

Toadstool Park

Carhenge

Sandhills