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6 Ideas for Creative Funfair and Amusement Park Photography

01 Dec

The post 6 Ideas for Creative Funfair and Amusement Park Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Charlie Moss.

funfair-and-amusement-park-photography

When the nights draw in its time for funfair and amusement park photography. When a fair comes to town, it’s an opportunity to photograph something new and vibrant for your portfolio. The bright lights, constant movement, and enthusiastic crowds provide endless photographic opportunities throughout the evening.

funfair and amusement park photography

My favorite time to photograph the funfair is during the blue hour – that hour or so before night truly falls. It creates an incredibly dramatic backdrop for the lights and colors that you’re going to photograph.

It’s a good idea to get on location an hour or more before the scheduled blue hour so that you can plan your route through the attractions, work out what looks interesting to shoot, and even start to plan some compositions.

But what about the actual process of taking the photos? How do you decide what to shoot and how you’re going to take the images?

Decide on your shutter speed

There’s a real risk when shooting funfair rides that they’re going to look static and very unimpressive. This usually happens because your shutter speed is too short, and so the action is frozen without any sense of movement.

funfair and amusement park photography

Lengthening your shutter speed up to half a second or more can lend a real feeling of action and excitement to your funfair and amusement park photography. But don’t forget that you’ll want to ideally put your camera on a tripod so that the rest of your shot stays clear and in focus!

It’s my preference to use shutter priority mode for this kind of image. Each ride will be traveling at a different speed, so you’ll need to adjust as you move from shot to shot in order to get the most dynamic images.

Watch the crowds

The story doesn’t stop at the rides – it’s going on all around you! Take a step back from focussing on the thrill-seeking action to see what the people on the ground are doing.

funfair and amusement park photography

Almost everyone at the funfair will make a great subject, and they’ll be bathed in gorgeous, atmospheric light from the rides and stalls. Take some time to watch the action and see where people naturally stop and do interesting things.

Look for great compositions and stand yourself in the perfect place to capture people enjoying their environment. Be ready to capture fleeting emotions and interesting behavior.

You might want to use a shallow depth of field to make your background less distracting. Getting everything in focus means there is more competing for your viewer’s attention.

Look for the unique angles

At any funfair you go to, there will be at least a dozen other photographers who are also looking for a great shot. You’re not in competition with them, of course, but it’s always nice to come home with a unique photograph.

funfair and amusement park photography

Once you’ve got a ‘safe’ shot (you know, the kind of image you often see posted online after the funfair), challenge yourself to see the same scene from a unique angle.

Here are some ideas to get you thinking:

  • Look up. See what the ride looks like when you frame it against the sky.
  • Use the architecture of the town that you’re in.
  • Shoot through something to get an interesting foreground effect.
  • Go completely abstract.
  • Experiment with leading lines.

Try an unexpected technique

The bright lights of the funfair provide an opportunity to try out techniques that you wouldn’t traditionally associate with this kind of photography. It’s a great time to experiment and see what works for an alternative take on funfair and amusement park photography.

6 Ideas for Creative Funfair and Amusement Park Photography

The shot above was taken using ICM (intentional camera movement) techniques. A long exposure combined with moving the camera can create an abstract image with a painterly feel.

You could also perhaps try zoom bursts for a different kind of dynamic action. Or have a go at making custom bokeh shapes to convey different messages in your photographs. Never stop experimenting – you don’t have to show anyone the shots if they don’t work!

Convert to black and white

Funfairs are a fabulous riot of color, but sometimes that’s not what we want in our photography. If a shot just seems too intense and busy, it’s always worth seeing if a black and white conversion works.

6 Ideas for Creative Funfair and Amusement Park Photography

When you’re deciding if a photograph is a good candidate for black and white conversion, there are a few things that you want to keep in mind. Your shot should have good contrast between light and dark areas so that the image doesn’t end up flat and lifeless.

Black and white images also often rely heavily on composition for their impact, so make sure that your subject is both interesting and well-placed in the frame.

Make sure that you experiment with different color temperatures during the black and white conversion too. The nature of the colorful and changeable lights at the funfair means that some ‘recipes’ for post-processing will work better than others.

Photograph the funfair during the day

The funfair doesn’t disappear during the day. Instead, it looks completely different. Taking your camera to the funfair during the day can open up a whole different set of possibilities to shoot.

funfair and amusement park photography

Instead of photographing the movement and excitement of the rides, try to capture the time when the fair workers are setting up ready for the day. Look around at the colors too – they’re very different from the colors you see at night once the sun has gone down!

This would be a great time to think about approaching some of the attraction holders and asking if you can shoot their portraits. And if you do this during the day, they’ll remember you when you go back in the evening, perhaps even posing for you again during a quiet moment. (Remember to get their details so that you can send them the picture.)

Time to get out and shoot!

No matter your level of experience, there’s something for everyone when it comes to funfair and amusement park photography. If you’re a beginner photographer, then taking a tripod and shooting long exposures is a great way to try night and long exposure photography for the first time.

If you’re more experienced as a photographer, then a whole world opens up with candid shots, portraits, and experimenting with creative angles and techniques.

Have you done any funfair and amusement park photography recently? Show us your pictures in the comments!

The post 6 Ideas for Creative Funfair and Amusement Park Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Charlie Moss.


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NYC’s iconic 101 Park Avenue skyscraper was turned into a giant camera last month

11 Jun

Photographer Brendan Barry, founder and director of Positive Light Projects and creator of numerous unusual cameras, recently transformed the 46th floor of NYC’s 101 Park Avenue skyscraper into a massive camera obscura. The camera was part of the larger Skyscraper Camera Project installation that was live from May 13 to 16 in the iconic Manhattan tower.

Barry, accompanied by photography students, looks over a negative captured as part of the Skyscraper Camera Project.

Barry has crafted different types of cameras out of a variety of unexpected materials, including a medium format camera built in a pineapple, a 4×5″ camera that incorporates a log and a 35mm ‘butternut squash camera.’

According to the CBS affiliate WLNY, Barry gathered with 20 photography students on Saturday, May 11, to blackout 160 windows in the 46th floor of 101 Park Avenue. Lenses were installed in the dark space, enabling the team to project large images onto screens inside of the skyscraper. Below is a short feature WLNY created on the project:

The project was conceived by Favorite Child Creative founder and director Nicholas Kalikow, according to The Phoblographer. The 46th floor of the skyscraper was available during that time, offering a 360-degree view of the Manhattan skyline and the unique opportunity for this installation.

One of the many images captured with the skyscraper camera obscura.

During the workshop, Barry and participants produced what may be the largest analog photographs of New York City; they measure up to 45″ x 93″. The photos were developed in an on-site darkroom. In addition to transforming the floor into a large camera, the team also created a functional camera replica of the skyscraper.

Below is a collection of behind-the-scene images from the project that Barry kindly shared with DPReview:

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Barry’s other work can be found on his website.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Photographer asks for help finding owners of a destroyed camera found at Zion National Park

21 Feb

Photographer Ben Horne has shared a video on his YouTube channel imploring the photography community to help him find the owner of a Fujifilm point-and-shoot camera that a friend of his found while on a hike in Zion National Park in Southwest Utah.

As explained in the three minute video, Horne’s friend Luke Riding was hiking along the base of Angels Landing — a tall rock formation with a narrow trail at the top where hikers are free to walk along — when he came across a Fujifilm camera that had clearly taken a tumble down the side of the 1,500-foot rock formation.

The camera itself is clearly battered from its treacherous journey down the side of Angels Landing, but the SD card inside remained intact, complete with a collection of date-stamped images captured before the Fujifilm’s free-fall. The images Horne has shared include a number of portraits with two younger females posing in various areas of Zion National Park in September 2015, according to the metadata.

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Horne has asked to help spread the word in an effort to return the camera and images back to their rightful owner(s). If you happen to know the individuals in the photos or know of anyone who happened to lose their Fujifilm camera while at the top of Angels Landing, you can contact Horne by email (listed in the YouTube video description) or via Instagram.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Amuse Park – Match Evaluation

04 Jul

Wanna see how fantastic you unquestionably are at earning dollars? I am particular that many you actually experience like minor entrepreneurs that have not nevertheless be noticed and available the opportunity to dominate the marketplace. Lots of men and women, which include me as well as you, like making lots of income just by playing. Sure you found ideal – just by experiencing a myriad of games; exactly where in the world are you able to find the most fulfilling online games visit website?

In the amusement park guy! There is on the web, on bored.com just a little technique video clip match which is labeled “Amuse Park”. Dude it is so wonderful! Like it! The pictures are unquestionably excellent, the overall match engage in is good and also the issues that you’ve got to perform will critically put anybody on the exam. So…this is particularly anything you need to undertake during the “Amuse Park”. You have got $ 6,000 so you in fact must crafted in the commencing a complete amusement park. Sounds very simple but it surely is not…the pretty to start with stage is analogous to education. The aim of your online video game will be to attract as many guests as is possible just because you need to get to a specific sum of stashed money. It’s possible you’ll established up a carousel or perhaps a castle from the begging. The position where you make it’s extremely important since together with your new developing, you must also place some benches, bathrooms, food-stands and plenty of other individuals. You should also attempt to retain the place clean up and at the time all over again using the services of someone to scrub it charges revenue…cash that you choose to get from a other topic park sights.

Witnessing how persons enter your “Amuse Park” getting an unsatisfied encounter then depart with their mouths for their ears is incredible and also hunting at the sum of cash through the stop from the day leads to you to definitely even open your very own concept park. It truly is not easy – you will need to imagine; plus your considering really should be suitable just because you just do not need to drop pounds so I believe that “Amuse Park” is exactly fantastic to participate in right before you open up your individual personal company.

Hey all people! I’m Alin and composing content which might be connected to pcs is one of my hobbies. I get the job done for Bored and i suppose that enjoying games can also be considered one of my best picks.

The post Amuse Park – Match Evaluation appeared first on Photonovice.

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Zion National Park clarifies controversial tripod restrictions

01 Feb
Photo by Jeremy Bishop

A few weeks ago, Zion National Park published its 2018 Commercial Use Authorization (CUA) for photography workshops, and found in its “Unauthorized Use” section on public use obstruction was a troubling note: The use of tripods on trails is prohibited by permittees or clients (monopods are authorized).

Restricting such a vital piece of gear would be fatal to most photography workshops operating in the park, and operators were quick to criticize the decision.

Speaking anonymously to DPReview, one photography workshop operator and permit holder explained how such a restriction would impact their workshop, saying, “I will be forced to cease all commercial workshops in Zion National Park … [by] enforcing this rule, they are essentially saying that they don’t want commercial photography workshops in their park.”

In light of the criticism, Zion National Park officials reassessed the tripod restriction and have since issued a clarification to workshop operators via an email sent Monday. In the email, officials said that “misleading information” had been spread earlier this month on social media about the matter, and that commercial photography workshops aren’t entirely banned from using tripods.

Rather, according to a copy of the email published by Fstoppers, commercial photography workshop participants are allowed to use tripods on road-side pullouts and in other designated park areas. Tripod usage is restricted on park trails, however, due to the size of these groups and the potential safety issues, trail congestion, and environmental effects they pose.

The email states, in part:

Large groups concentrated in one place can result in trampling of vegetation, soil erosion, widening of formal trails, and impact other visitors’ experience of the natural views and soundscapes along these trails.

In order to reduce roadway safety concerns for all photographers on the Canyon Junction Road Bridge, the use of tripods on the Pa’rus Trail will soon be added to the 2018 conditions of use for Commercial Photography Workshops. Otherwise, the conditions of use for commercial photography workshops are unchanged from 2017.

Per the 2018 Zion National Park CUA, photography workshops may have up to 12 participants, plus up to two instructors, allowing for up to 14 individuals total per group.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Photo story of the week: Sunrise in Burren National Park

11 Nov

The warm colors of a sunrise or sunset in a wide open landscape, the foreground gently touched by the orange hues, and the sun throwing a nice aperture star—that is what the romanticizing cliché of landscape photography looks like in the heads of many people these days I reckon. Rightfully so, since it is one of the most atmospheric times of day to shoot: the light is soft, and partial illumination of the foreground is desirable for tonal separation and visual flow.

Almost every landscape photographer has at some point of his or her creative journey chased the intensity that comes with the golden hour. Still, even after all these years of shooting mainly landscapes, going after the elusive sunset and sunrise light is one of my favorite things to do while out in the field. One of the reasons is simply because depending on where you live it can be a rare sight—it is not an everyday sight for most of us.

For all who don’t do this already I would highly recommend using satellite and radar data to scout your location ahead of time

Whenever I am out on a road trip or hiking trip I keep a constant eye on the satellite data—if I have cell reception—to check the cloud coverage in order to find spots right at the edge of a field of clouds to get good conditions for a sunrise or sunset shot. To take this shot, I took a look at the radar over the western parts of Ireland—over the Burren National Park to be exact—and monitored the satellite forecast before I was catching some shuteye.

The predictions for the following morning showed the clouds would most likely pass in the next couple of hours, being carried further north, leaving only a field of scattered patches behind. Furthermore, there would be no clouds at the eastern horizon blocking the sunlight. It is not hard to do these sorts of things if you know the sources for reliable weather data in the area you’re in, but it can be the difference between getting a good shot or none at all. So, for all who don’t do this already I would highly recommend using satellite and radar data to scout your location ahead of time.

When I woke up next morning it was still dark as I made my way out to the karst landscape of the national park grounds which are dominated by limestone ground speckled with shrubs and grass. I had scouted the lake before while I was preparing for my trip by looking at hiking maps of the area, and knew the sun was at the right angle to rise next to one of the limestone hills I had hiked to a day before. With this in mind, I was spending much of the blue hour finding different foreground compositions for the moment the clouds would light up and sun would make its way past the horizon line.

It seemed like the country had saved the best light for last

Originally, I intended to include a bigger patch of the lake in my image, but ultimately scrapped the idea for the shrubs and stones for three reasons: A) because the unique feature of the landscape is not the lake but rather the limestone, B) because the clouds were almost entirely gone by the time the sun rose and only covered a narrow strip of the sky, logically much of the reflection would have been just empty sky, and C) the morning light on the shrubs made for a warm and cold color palette with the rocks still in the shade.

I tried to balance out the double sun star in the upper right corner by placing some of the little bushes near the lower left corner of the frame. Due to the perspective, the gaps in between the shrubs appear to becoming shorter the further away they are from the camera, creating a visual flow and implicitly drawing the viewer into the image towards the sun, much like the curvature of the shoreline and the slim layer of mist above the lake. To me the leading lines were appealing in their subtlety, not being too obvious, yet present.

After I walked back to my sleeping bag I was very content, feeling like I did the landscape and the sunrise justice. This was also one of the last shots I took on my two week road trip through Ireland and it seemed like the country had saved the best light for last.

Pure bliss for a landscape photographer

Now I have another cheesy sunset in my portfolio. And sure, for some it may be nothing more than a cliché, but for me it represents a morning alone in Burren National Park, one of the most beautiful areas of Ireland, sitting in the warm morning light and enjoying these sights and taking a couple of shots while eating breakfast—pure bliss for a landscape photographer.

EXIF: Nikon D800 – Nikkor AF-S 20 mm 1:1,8 G ED | FLM CB-48FTR & CP30-M4S | 20mm | 4 Exposures for DRI | f/13 | ISO 100


Nicolas Alexander Otto is a semi-professional landscape photographer based out of North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany. He writes for different online and print media, teaches workshops for several agencies, sells prints and calendars and offers post processing sessions. You can find more of his work on his website, Facebook and Instagram.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Rail to Trail: 12 U.S. Park Projects Reclaiming Urban Infrastructure

10 Oct

[ By SA Rogers in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

A whole lot of valuable land in America’s densest urban centers is occupied by the disused and often toxic remnants of neglected infrastructure, industrial complexes and other blight that could be green space instead. Taking inspiration from New York City’s High Line, an elevated linear park along a former New York Central Railroad spur, many cities are transforming urban riverbanks, viaducts, underpasses, freeway structures and even the tops of tunnels into parks, bike paths, pedestrian routes and other public amenities.

11th Street Bridge Park, Washington DC by OMA and OLIN

An aging freeway structure over the Anacostia River in Washington D.C. is set to become the 11th Street Bridge Park, with officials announcing in October 2017 that a design by OMA + OLIN has been chosen. Each ‘lane’ of the bridge is pulled upward toward the middle, crossing each other to form an X shape; the space underneath these overhangs will host a performance area, cafe, plazas and other public functions.

Lowline, New York City, New York by James Ramsey and Daniel Barasch

Complementing New York City’s famous High Line park, a 1.45-mile greenway built on a former New York Central Railroad spur, the subterranean ‘Lowline’ has been given a green light. Set to be the world’s first underground park, it will be tucked into a former trolley terminal in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, with a design by James Ramsey and Daniel Barasch. “The transformation of an old, forgotten trolley terminal into a dynamic cultural space designed for a 21st century city is truly a New York story,” says Barasch. “We know with input from the community and the city, we can make the Lowline a unique, inspiring space that everyone can enjoy.”

The 606, Chicago, Illinois by Collins Engineering, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Frances Whitehead

Chicago converted its abandoned Bloomingdale Rail Line into a 2.7 mile linear park called the 606 (named for the zip code prefix shared by everyone in the city.) The greenway connects four separate neighborhoods and includes a park and trail system with elevated trails for bikers, runners and walkers as well as event spaces and lots of greenery. The project was designed by the firm Frances Whitehead, which approached it as a ‘living work of art,’ demonstrating the vital role that arts play in the fabric of the city.

The Underline, Miami, Florida by James Corner Field Operations

Down in Miami, a stretch beneath an elevated rail line could become ‘The Underline,’ a new public park by James Corner Field Operations, one of the studios behind the High Line in NYC. The 10-mile-long park and urban trail would sit beneath the city’s MetroRail, following an existing bike path called the M-Path, but widening it and adding a parallel pedestrian path that winds through various ecosystems of native plants and habitats for birds and butterflies. Spaces for arts and recreation would be scattered along the way, like pop-up structures and a bike tune-up station.

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Rail To Trail 12 U S Park Projects Reclaiming Urban Infrastructure

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[ By SA Rogers in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

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NPPA says LA public park photography ban is unconstitutional

10 Aug
LA instituted a blanket ban on photography in Pershing Square during the Downtown Stage summer concerts, but the NPPA, ACLU, and others say the ban is unconstitutional. Photo: Visitor7

A photography ban that is being ‘strictly enforced’ in a Los Angeles public park during a series free concerts has been branded ‘unconstitutional’ by city and national media and public liberties groups.

The picture-taking ban was put in place by the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks at the request of the performers of the Pershing Square Downtown Stage summer concerts that are being held in the Pershing Square public park. However, freedom groups including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have complained the ban is at odds with the First Amendment of the American Constitution.

As the park is a public space, the City is acting unlawfully by restricting the rights of citizens and the media to record the events, and it doesn’t have the power to overrule constitutional rights, according to lawyers working for a group of bodies fighting the ban.

The National Press Photographers Association, Society of Professional Journalists/Los Angeles Chapter, Society of Professional Journalists/National, California Broadcasters Association, Electronic Frontier Foundation, American Photographic Artists, American Society of Media Photographers, Digital Media Licensing Association, Freedom of the Press Foundation, Professional Photographers of America, Radio and Television Digital News Association, and Reporters Without Borders have got together with the ACLU to prepare a letter that was sent to the City department in which the collective protests the ban and states why it is unlawful.

The group specifically objects to a clause in the terms and conditions of the concerts that states that even photography and videography made on iPads will not be allowed:

(1) Cameras/Photography: At the request of the artist/performer, video, photo and audio devices are prohibited at Pershing Square’s Downtown Stage Saturday concerts. This includes Pro cameras, monopods, tripods, selfie sticks, iPads or professional photography/video equipment of any type. This policy will be strictly enforced due to contractual agreement.

“There should be no restrictions on photography and videography in Pershing Square during the Summer Concert Series or at any other time,” reads the letter. “Even assuming the photography ban is being applied in a content-neutral manner, the rule is still unconstitutional.”

“Unfortunately, the NPPA sees these type of onerous restrictions far too often nationwide,” Mickey Osterreicher, the general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, said in a statement. “It is still extremely difficult to understand how the City of Los Angeles and its attorneys could believe they had the authority to contractually agree to a request barring photography and recording along with audio-visual devices from a traditionally public forum such as Pershing Square during certain events.”

The restrictions at the events also cover the ability of attendees to record audio and to distribute leaflets, which are also considered to be unconstitutional considering the freedoms that are inherent in public forums.

For more information see the NPPA and ACLU websites.

You can read the full letter, which the NPPA helped to draft, sent from the ACLU to the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks below:

August 3, 2017

Via E-Mail
Mr. Mike Feuer
Los Angeles City Attorney
James K Hahn City Hall East, Suite 800
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Mr. Michael A. Shull
Los Angeles Dept. of Rec. and Parks, General Manager
221 N Figueroa St., 3rd Floor, Suite 350
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Dear Messrs. Feuer and Shull:

I am writing on behalf of the National Press Photographers Association, Society of Professional Journalists/Los Angeles Chapter, Society of Professional Journalists/National, California Broadcasters Association, Electronic Frontier Foundation, American Photographic Artists, American Society of Media Photographers, Digital Media Licensing Association, Freedom of the Press Foundation, Professional Photographers of America, Radio and Television Digital News Association, and Reporters Without Borders about City rules and policies that apply to Pershing Square, particularly to the Summer Concert series, that violate the First Amendment. Because Pershing Square is a public forum, any restrictions on First Amendment activities there must be content-neutral, reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions. The existing policies providing for a total ban on photography/videography and an arbitrary permitting scheme for circulating pamphlets at the Downtown Stage Summer Concert Series are facially unconstitutional, as will be shown below.

Accordingly, I request that these policies be modified to comport with the United States Constitution. Namely, there should be no restrictions on photography and videography in Pershing Square during the Summer Concert Series or at any other time. Additionally, distribution of pamphlets, flyers, or other printed, non-commercial materials is a protected First Amendment right and should not be limited either.

The Summer Concert Series Policies at Issue
The ACLU’s First Amendment concerns relate to the stated policies of the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks listed on the department’s website1. The specific policies at issue are as follows:

(1) Cameras/Photography: At the request of the artist/performer, video, photo and audio devices are prohibited at Pershing Square’s Downtown Stage Saturday concerts. This includes Pro cameras, monopods, tripods, selfie sticks, iPads or professional photography/video equipment of any type. This policy will be strictly enforced due to contractual agreement.

(2) Flyers/Handouts/Product Samples: The distribution of promotional items, flyers or printed materials is not permitted without written permission of Pershing Square. The sampling and distribution of products is prohibited without a venue permit.

When contacted about the specifics of the second policy, the Department of Recreation and Parks redirected the ACLU to the Pershing Square office to answer questions regarding permitting criteria. An employee of the park later informed the ACLU that “in general” distribution of expressive materials is not allowed at Pershing Square at any time. When asked what authority governed this rule, that same employee vaguely referred the ACLU to a “post order” issued by the local police department. The ACLU has since contacted the Central Community Police Station and requested the “post order” but has yet to receive a response.

Legal Standard
Governmental restrictions on expressive activity like photography and leafletting are subject to the most searching scrutiny when they apply in public fora. See Perry Education Assn. v. Perry Local Educators’ Assn., 460 U.S. 37, 45 (1983) (“[In the public forum,] the rights of the state to limit expressive activity are sharply circumscribed.”) Courts engage in “forum analysis” to determine the validity of speech restrictions applied to a given piece of government owned or controlled property. See Walker v. Texas Div., Sons of Confederate Veterans, Inc., 135 S.Ct. 2239, 2250 (2015) (recognizing that “‘forum analysis’ [is applied] to evaluate government restricts on purely private speech that occurs on government property.”) Federal courts classify government-owned property into three categories for purposes of forum analysis(1) traditional public forums; (2) public forums by government designation (areas opened for limited expressive use; and (3) nonpublic forums (which, by tradition or design are not appropriate platforms for unrestrained communications; e.g., military installations and federal workplaces). See Perry, 460 U.S. 37 at 43–47.

Public parks have long been deemed public forums by the United States Supreme Court. See Perry, 460 U.S. 37 at 45 (“[A]t one end of the spectrum are streets and parks which ‘have immemorially been held in trust for the use of the public.”). Governmental actors may only restrict expressive activity in a public forum through reasonable time, place, and manner regulations. Id. However, when the government seeks to enforce a content-based prohibition in these spaces, its regulations must be narrowly-tailored to further a compelling state interest. Id. Pershing Square is a public forum, and remains one during the Summer Concert Series. The Park does not suddenly become a non-public forum even if the City in some way yields control of the park to a concert promoter or other private party during the concerts, contrary to the City’s belief and practice. See Rule 1 on Cameras/Photography (“This policy will be strictly enforced due to contractual agreement”).

Numerous courts have rejected the argument that private contracting over traditional public forums abrogates the government’s First Amendment obligations. The Second Circuit, for instance, has held that a publicly-funded stadium managed by a private company under a long-term lease was still a public forum. See Paulsen v. County of Nassau, 925 F.2d 65, 69–70 (2d Cir. 1991) (pointing to the intent of the government in creating the forum, the fact that the private contractor was to “operate[] [the stadium] in the interests of the County,” and the history of consistent practice of allowing the enjoyment of First Amendment rights, parades, political rallies, speeches, etc., as objective evidence that stadium was a public forum by government designation). The Tenth Circuit has similarly held that a public sidewalk sold by Salt Lake City to a church organization was still considered a public forum, even while technically owned by the church. First Unitarian Church of Salt Lake City v. Salt Lake City Corp., 308 F. 3d 1114, 1123-24 (10th Cir. 2002).

Because the City retained an easement on the sidewalk and because of the property’s objective characteristics, the Tenth Circuit rejected the argument that the sale of the land transformed the sidewalk into a non-public forum where First Amendment activities could be absolutely restricted. Id. at 1124–25. The objective characteristics the court looked to in determining whether the sidewalk was a public forum were (1) whether the property shares “physical similarities” with more traditional public forums; (2) whether the government has permitted broad public access to the property; (3) whether expressive activity would “tend to interfere in a significant way with the uses to which the government has as a factual matter dedicated the property”; and (4) whether the property has traditionally been open to the public. Id. at 1125 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Here, factor one is met because even during the concert series – the park maintains its typical physical characteristics, mirroring other public parks across the City.

Factor two is met; indeed, the concert series is free and open to the public. Factor three is met as well; the concert itself is actually devoted to expressive activity, the playing of music, the sharing of ideas through sound. Therefore, the activity that the government seeks to restrict here would not interfere with the temporary use that the park is devoted to, it is instead part-and-parcel with that use. Lastly, factor four is met; Pershing Square has been open to the public for more than one-hundred years and according to the park’s website, its role as a location for expressive activity dates back to 1918.2 Thus, Pershing Square is a public forum during the Summer Concert Series.

Analysis
Because the park is a public forum, the question becomes whether the rules at issue, enforced by the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks are reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions.

Video/Photo/Audio Device Prohibition
Private citizens have a First Amendment right to record film/audio and take photographs in public. See Turner v. Driver, 848 F.3d 678, 689 (5th Cir. 2017) (recognizing that the First Amendment’s protects “the right to film”.); Am. Civil Liberties Union of Illinois v. Alvarez, 679 F.3d 583, 595 (7th Cir. 2012) (“The act of making an audio or audiovisual recording is necessarily included within the First Amendment’s guarantee of speech and press rights as a corollary of the right to disseminate the resulting recording. The right to publish or broadcast an audio or audiovisual recording would be insecure, or largely ineffective, if the antecedent act of making the recording is wholly unprotected, as the State’s Attorney insists.”); Fordyce v. City of Seattle, 55 F.3d 436, 439 (9th Cir. 1995); Crago v. Leonard, 2014 WL 3849954 at *3 (E.D. Cal. 2014) (“As early as 1995, the Ninth Circuit has recognized a ‘First Amendment right to film matters of public interest.’”); see also Fields v. City of Phila., 2017 WL 2884391 (3d Cir. 2017) (clarifying that the First, Fifth, Seventh, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals have recognized a First Amendment right to record police activity in public)’

Thus, the government may only regulate photography and recording at the Summer Concert Series via reasonable time, manner, and place restrictions. To sustain a time, place, and manner restriction on First Amendment activities, the government must show that the restriction (a) is content-neutral, (b) is narrowly tailored to serve a significant government purpose, and (c) leaves open ample alternative channels of communication. See Ward v. Rock Against Racism, 491 U.S. 781, 789 (1989).

Even assuming the photography ban is being applied in a content-neutral manner, the rule is still unconstitutional. For one, the government does not have a clear, significant interest in a blanket ban on photography and videography at free, public concerts. Perhaps the City believes that the ban serves to protect the copyright interests of performers. If so, the ban is unconstitutionally overbroad because it prohibits a large range of activities that do not violate copyright law. First, many people will use their cameras, iPhones, etc. to take selfies, or to share video clips with friends on Facebook, with no intent to use them for commercial purposes. These uses are generally lawful “fair uses” Similarly, freelance and media photographers or critics may

take photographs or video for inclusion in media outlets. Journalistic and critical uses do not violate copyright law either, even if the freelance photographer is paid by a media outlet, or the media outlet publishes them in a newspaper that is sold. In the event that an individual goes beyond the bounds of “fair use” and violates the rights of a performer, copyright law provides a more than adequate remedy. See, e.g., CAL. CIV. CODE. § 3344(a) (West 1984). Thus, a blanket ban on recording is not narrowly tailored to satisfy this – or any other – important interest.

Flyer/Handout/Product Sample Prohibition

The distribution of expressive materials in public is also protected by the First Amendment. See Hague v. Comm. For Indus. Org., 307 U.S. 496 (1939) (deeming facially unconstitutional a municipal ordinance that prohibited leafletting on “any street or public place” without a permit); Klein v. City of San Clemente, 584 F.3d 1196 (9th Cir. 2009) (affirming preliminary injunction against law banning leafletting on parked cars); Foti v. City of Menlo Park, 146 F.3d 629 (9th Cir. 1998) (deeming facially unconstitutional a municipal ordinance in California that banned signs placed on vehicles parked in public roadways designed to “attract the attention of the public”). Therefore, the same standard used to analyze the validity of the video/photo/audio device prohibition applies here: any regulation must be reasonable as to time, place, and manner and comport with the standard established under Ward v. Rock Against Racism, 491 U.S. at 789.

As is the case for the photography/videography ban, the City will be unable to demonstrate that the ban on leafletting without permission is consistent with the First Amendment for two reasons. First, the permitting system in place is so arbitrary that it invites discrimination and thus, is facially unconstitutional. The current rule, as written on the Pershing Square website3, contains no criteria whereby officials decide whether to allow or reject a permit application. Nor does that website provide a link to download or submit a permit application. Officials at the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks also report that there is “no uniform department policy on how permits are issued” and that “case-by-case permitting decisions are made on site [at the Summer Concert Series].” The lack of a permitting policy from the Department results in a “standardless discretion” possessed by the government, which is clearly inconsistent with the First Amendment. See Forsyth County, Ga. v. Nationalist Movement, 505 U.S. 123, 140 (1992).

Second, if the City were to simply ban leafletting without effectuating its arbitrary permitting system, that ban is overbroad, even if the City were to assert valid interests it is trying to further through the ban. See generally Klein v. City of San Clemente, 584 F.3d 1196, 1202 (9th Cir. 2009) (“As both this court and the Supreme Court have repeatedly emphasized, ‘merely invoking interests … is insufficient. The government must also show that the proposed communicative activity endangers those interests.’”) (citation omitted).

Examples of possible legitimate interests for a restriction on distribution of expressive materials are relieving overcrowding, expediting traffic flow, and maintaining the privacy and quiet enjoyment of civilians. See Saieg v. City of Dearborn, 641 F.3d 727, 736 (6th Cir. 2011); City of Watseka, 796 F.2d 1547, 1550 (1986). But courts are highly unlikely to conclude that a leafletting ban is narrowly tailored to those asserted interests. Concerts are inherently noisy and crowded; thus, the government cannot claim to have a legitimate interest in maintaining privacy, relieving overcrowding, or expediting traffic flow because such an interest would cut against the natural and foreseeable results of the government’s own actions here, putting on the Summer Concert Series. Nor can the City justify its ban by asserting a desire to prevent littering because there are obvious, far less restrictive means to solve the problem, e.g., enforcing the city’s littering laws, which undercut the government’s position. See e.g., Schneider v. State of New Jersey, Town of Irvington, 308 U.S. 147, 163 (1939) (“There are obvious methods of preventing littering. Amongst these is the punishment of those who actually throw papers on the streets.”). Moreover, the City does not ban people attending the concert series from bringing food, coffee, newspapers, and other materials to the Summer Concert series, and it is hard to believe that leafletting would add significantly to the amount of litter the City is already prepared to deal with. See Klein, 584 F.3d at 120-2-03.

Conclusion
In sum, neither the photography/videography ban nor the arbitrary permitting scheme for distribution of expressive materials will be upheld in court as valid time, place, and manner restrictions on the First Amendment. In fact, the City of Los Angeles has already lost at the Ninth Circuit on one of these issues. See Gerritsen v. City of Los Angeles, 994 F.2d 570, 575–77 (9th Cir. 1993) (holding a similarly restrictive “handbill-distribution scheme” in El Pueblo Park unconstitutional). Though the United States Constitution and the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence are clear on this issue, the decision from the Ninth Circuit in Gerritsen sent a striking message to the City of Los Angeles: local government may not arbitrarily infringe upon its citizens’ First Amendment rights in public parks. The fact that the City has chosen to promulgate and enforce rules that violate these rights for the second time in just over twenty years makes it likely that a court would deny qualified immunity if anyone who was prohibited from leafletting or taking pictures were to bring a suit for damages. Accordingly, the ACLU urges the City to eliminate its rules restricting First Amendment activity in Pershing Square or, at the very least, modify them to comport with the United States Constitution.

Please contact me within the next 10 days to ensure that steps are being taken to solve these problems. If the City intends to stand by these restrictions, the ACLU will consider all appropriate action to address these constitutional violations.

Sincerely,

Peter J. Eliasberg
Chief Counsel/
Manheim Family Attorney
For First Amendment Rights

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Seoul Skygarden: Elevated Park on an Abandoned Highway Officially Opens

23 May

[ By SA Rogers in Drawing & Digital. ]

A formerly abandoned 1970s highway in South Korea’s capital city now hosts 24,000 plants as the Seoullo Skygarden, an elevated public park open to all citizens 24 hours a day. That’s a big deal in a city where so much architecture and infrastructure tends to be corporate-sponsored, with special perks for paying customers of companies like Hyundai. Mayor Park Won-soon, a former human rights and anti-corruption activist, wanted to balance all those logos with public spaces that are more accessible to all.

Dutch architecture firm MVRDV was tasked with designing the park back in 2015, and in just two years, they’ve created a successful public space revitalizing and connecting public spaces near the main railway station that were previously fragmented by roads and rail tracks. Its base, a 1970 motorway flyover, sat empty for a long time after being deemed unsafe for its original purpose.

The Skygarden is packed with 645 potted trees and around 228 species and sub-species of plants, adding a significant amount of greenery to a highly paved area of the city – not to mention encouraging foot traffic, recreation, interaction and physical activity. The route is set up to create a network of hotels, shops, gardens and other attractions, enlivening the center of the city. It’s not just a walkway – it’s an educational experience.

“The linear park was designed as a collection of small gardens, each one with its very own composition, perfume, color and identity,” says MVRDV. “The landscape will change according to the seasons: the bright colors of leaves in autumn of the Aceraceae family (maples), the blossom of cherry trees and rhododendron in spring, the evergreen conifer trees ink inter and shrubs and trees bearing fruit in summer.”

“In the future, the overpass will evolve with new plants and new activators so as to become an ‘urban nursery,’ rearing trees for the surrounding districts. Additional structures of stairs, lifts and escalators as well as new ‘satellite’ gardens can connect to the Skygarden, sprouting like branches from the existing structural piers. These extensions can inspire further additions to the area’s greenery and public spaces, and will connect the Skygarden to its surroundings both physicallyl and visually through plant species related to each of the neighborhoods.”

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RotterZwam: Abandoned Water Park Turned Indoor Mushroom Farm

29 Apr

[ By SA Rogers in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

Bags of old coffee grounds hang in the dank dressing rooms of an abandoned Rotterdam water park, growing oyster mushrooms. Two men turned the former Tropicana space, an old teen hangout, into the perfect damp, dim environment for their business, making use of the structure while the city council decides what to do with it. ‘RotterZwam’ rents the building on an anti-squat lease and have transformed it into a fascinating example of adaptive reuse and urban farming.

Tropicana is fairly infamous among Rotterdam locals, but closed after the former owner went bankrupt in 2010. The space had been plagued with problems, from hygiene to sexual assault. It sat empty until Siemen Cox and mark Slegers, RotteZwam’s owners, realized it looked like a giant greenhouse.

Though they hope that central glassed-in space – formerly the pool – will eventually become a greenhouse, for now, they’re making use of the dressing rooms and basement, which offer ideal conditions for fungal growth. The crew hangs bags of coffee grinds from the old Tropicana clothes hangers, and before long, they sprout oyster mushrooms.

They collect the coffee from local cafes, transport it in their carrier bicycle, and give the compost to worms to create an extremely low-waste operation. The produce about 20-50kg of mushrooms every week, and sell it to local restaurants, bakeries and food trucks. They also offer DIY mushroom-growing kits.

“Cities like Rotterdam produce nothing but waste and commuters,” they say in an interview with Vice’s Munchies. “This entertainment park represents that perfectly – we build things and, when we don’t want them anymore, we need others to clean it up, to sweep up our garbage. That’s not how nature works, though – in nature wast doesn’t exist. In this building we hardly ever buy a thing, because eery material or nail is already here.”

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