So this is bigger news for both Heather and Kyle, but I got to play a small part too so here’s the scoop…

Check out today’s Washington Examiner (PDF) for Heather’s column about Kyle’s awesome photo of Michael Stipe. After you read all about it you may proceed down to Adams Morgan and see the photo with your very eyes!

The lastest Ten Miles Square show, I’m With the Band, opened last Thursday at Dahlak. Go see it to “view the work of three talented, DC photographers who combine their passions for music and photography to capture the spirit and energy of local artists and headliners alike:”

Kyle Gustafson
Martin Locraft
Nestor Diaz

Dahlak
1771 U Street NW
Washington, DC 20009
(On the corner between Florida Ave and 17th Street)

Kyle Gustafson has been used in several major publications including the Washington Post, Toronto Star, the Sun (UK), Heat Magazine, Twist Magazine, as well as DCist.com, NME.com, Rollingstone.com, Pitchforkmedia.com, and Huffingtonpost.com

Martin Locraft has been featured in DC Magazine, and his work has been seen on DCist.com, OnTap, the Onion, the GW Hatchet, and Arlington Connection

Nestor Diaz has had images in SPIN.com, Rollingstone.com, RVA magazine, Pitchfork.com and DCist.com

Oh right, and so where I come in to play is the byline photo of Heather that was used in today’s article. This is a photograph that we took right after hanging DCist Exposed 2009. Flashpoint had this couch like thing in the middle of the gallery and Heather humored me when I asked that she stand up on it while I snapped a few shots. The ones from the ground up weren’t coming out like I’d imagined so I grabbed a wobbly chair, stood up on it, and grabbed a few more shots. This was one of the very last taken and worked out a lot better.

As Gary points out on his blog, the artist in question responded quite nicely (and promptly) about the copyright infringement (see last post). Still waiting to hear from Bicycling Magazine. I’ll let the story unfold over on rant-o-riffic!

Here’s Mr. Stermer’s reply:

From: Dugald Stermer
To: Gary
Sent: Monday, September 8, 2008 12:06:53 PM
Subject: Re: Use of my copyrighted photo.

Hello Gary.

I did do the illustration, from, as you point out, your photograph. However it was supplied me by Bicycling magazine as reference. My assumption was that they had a staff photographer take the picture or at least had acquired permission. Your quarrel is with them, and I sympathize, even empathize.

The art director’s mail is erin******@rodale.com.

Best of luck,

Dugald

Cleared for take-off, originally uploaded by gmr2048.

UPDATE, September 9, 2008: Ok, Gary at least heard back from the artist, Mr. Stermer so I will dial back my rhetoric about his copyright infringements. Bicycling Magazine still has some explaining to do.

All images and text © 2007 Gary Ryan. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced, displayed, modified or distributed without the express prior written permission. For permission, email me.

Seems that someone didn’t quite take to heart the “Copyright ©” part of this cool shot of Larry Camp clearing a log. Compare this image to the “illustration” found on the Bicycling magazine website (or in the October 2008 PRINT edition of the mag). They’re an exact match. Well, no, that’s not entirely true, as Gary points out on his blog, several modifications were made:

Things that are different
Jersey color
Number on race plate
Their rider doesn’t have a head. Poor fella.

Gary’s friend Ben helps out with the comparison:

Way to go Mr. Stermer Bicycling Magazine. You all seem to be playing from the old school way of business that Mr. Stermer rails against when he talks about the erosion of intellectual property rights or when he wrote the following:

Further, much of the theft has to do with moving the stolen pictures to other sites on the internet anyway, basically dot for dot. None of us has the time, will or resources to try to track down these illegal acts, and the thieves know it. Further, unless we take the considerable time and trouble to register each of our pictures with the U.S. Copyright Office, even if we did track down an offender all we can do at best is get a cease-and-desist order, which he may or may not choose to obey.

The thing about the internet is that as information housed on the web grows larger, the world will continue to shrink. We now have family, friends, and all manner of online contacts spread all over the world. And they are all consuming bits and pieces of the data stream, which means we do not have to worry about the time and resources to track down illegal acts. Just like the one illustrated above, illegal acts are going to pop up almost instantly. Combine each of our social networks with search engines like TinEye and the world flattens even more.   Thieves will no longer be able to hide.

I spent quite a few of my days in Montana driving around the middle of nowhere with Alexandra Alter (seen in photo above), feature writer for the Wall Street Journal. She was great company as we searched for stories and photos and video that might capture the essence of a race chock full of amazing stories, fantastic quotes, and some of the most beautiful scenery you can imagine. Her story, following Team #28’s Kathy Roche-Wallace, is in Friday’s paper and online now.

As someone who has recently struggled to get my version of the race pared down to under one thousand words (see the October issue of Trail Runner), Alexandra’s version does a great job at capturing the many challenges a race like PQ Montana presented to racers. Go pick up a copy of the Journal at your local newsstand or read it online right now! Oh and be sure to watch the video. My left arm and camera make a cameo at 20 seconds into the film. Just don’t blink!

Iron Mom

Alexandra Alter follows a 47-year-old woman out to conquer 548 miles of mountains, snow and exhaustion.

By ALEXANDRA ALTER
July 25, 2008; Page W1

Big Sky, Mont.

Four days and 263 miles into a backcountry race and Kathy Roche-Wallace isn’t even halfway to the finish. She’s limping on a big toe that is infected and swollen. She has a purple bruise the size of a grapefruit on her left thigh from a spill down a mountainside. Her sweat smells of vinegar and ammonia, a sign her fuel-starved body has started burning muscle. |Read Full Story|

Well, the race continues, but it’s time for me to head back to reality.  Got to say I’m a little bummed about leaving early, but I’ve burned through all of my vacation and now there is also that pesky July 8 deadline staring me down from across the room.

I’m sure I’ll have more thoughts on this most recent version of Primal Quest and I’m sure they’ll end up on the blog here.  In the meantime though, I need to shake these cobwebs lose, jump in the shower, and get out of the room before house keeping comes calling…

CycleFest, originally uploaded by Brian Knight Photography.

Does the week begin on Sunday or Monday? I’ve never really be clear on the matter. I’m of the opinion that Sunday is the last day of the week, but all of my calendars seem to differ. Anyways, the point here is that since Sunday (be it the start, or end, of something – and really, while we’re at it, maybe we should further investigate our need to quantify events and place them on a time line… or, maybe not) I’ve been a little busy.

First of all, Sunday afternoon I had to take a giant nap. It was great. I love to nap, especially after spending many hours exposed to the elements. Sunday morning was an early wakeup, followed by shooting the cold and wet CycleFest 10K trail run at Wakefield, followed by the afore mentioned nap. Which was great. Post nap activities included editing photos. And editing photos. And John Adams watching. And editing still more photos.

After editing and posting photos I got sucked into watching “Babel” that Brad Pitt movie where the lives of four families end up being tragically interconnected on account of one man’s desire to hunt. Or something like that. I wouldn’t know because I ended up pausing the movie a couple times to focus on the photo editing and then I had to rewind it a couple times (have I mentioned how much I love the DVR?) too. Finally, towards 2am I was able to settle in and really start to enjoy the show. The pace was quickening, the story lines were converging and then… then I pressed a button on the remote and jumped forward to real time on the TV. And the movie was long past over and there was nothing I could do to figure out how to get back to my end point. There were maybe 15 minutes left. I was so disappointed. Anyone know how that movie ends? Feel free to leave spoilers and/or commentary in the comments.

Monday I was back at work and then I went on an odyssey to first the District where I was honked at not once, but twice by an impatient Metro Bus driver because apparently I was waiting in a no waiting zone. (And let me have a quick word with that driver… Mr. Metro Bus driver I don’t honk my horn at you when you’re taking your sweet ass time all over the city and regional highways. No, I am patient. In fact, there is one Metro bus I regularly encounter and I pretty much always let him merge over to one of the middle lanes on I-66. So get off my ass already, ok?).

But I digress… the purpose of the trip was to go to the College Park IKEA and assist Heather with the loading and delivering of her new kitchen cabinets. And so on to the pride and joy of Sweden did we travel and waiting there for us were harried, seemingly overworked/underpaid employees who had apparently forgotten that they have a pretty sweet deal* working as they do at IKEA (*based on a quick Google search for “ikea employee” and then skimming the results it seems like IKEA should be a wonderous place to work. I mean, $2 lunches? For anything on the menu?! Awesome.). Their attitude could best be described as “surly.”

Long story short, they didn’t want to fill the order with less than an hour to closing and there was no way we were going to leave without cabinetry. Guess who won? HMG did. Duh. And before too long the car was loaded, tied down, and we were enjoying a nice reward of delicious pancakes (that’s no sarcasm there btw, the pancakes were really good, and not just because we were starved – though I’m sure that helped).

I got home around 12:30 and then went to bed. Then the next morning, on Tuesday, I went to work. Then after work I drove to Burke and met my Dad for dinner (since he was in town for some meetings or something). Then after dinner I came home and worked on race photos. Until 2am. Then I went to bed. Then, the next morning (Wednesday) I went to work. Again. Then, after work, I came home and met up with my brother’s fiancée (Leah) who was in town for meetings or something. I drove her around the old neighborhood and we discovered that someone has been messing up the old house. Then we went to dinner. Then, after dinner I came home and worked on race photos.

Raise your hand if you’ve detected a pattern!

Now though, instead of staying up past 2am I am going to throw in the towel and go to bed. This has really just been a long way of saying that the CycleFest photos are almost done, but not quite, and so I am begging everyone who may be anxiously awaiting the final upload to please be patient one more night.

Thanks!

From WYFF in Greenville, SC today comes this news story about a fire on board a Delta 767. The opening to the story reads:

A passenger was burned during a fire on a Delta passenger plane that was forced to make an emergency landing at Greenville-Spartanburg Airport, according to airport officials.

But a couple paragraphs later we read:

The plane landed safely without incident and taxied to the B Concourse, Weston said.

WTF?! Landed safely, except for the whole passenger on fire thing.  Nice.  We also read that:

• the captain smelled smoke in the cockpit
• passenges reported hearing a “possible explosion”
• passengers reported feeling heat coming from the floor of the plane
• passengers were instructed to assume the crash position for landing

But luckily the plane landed without incident. Sweet.

Now, I’m not blaming the Delta baggage handlers or other employees, but is it a coincidence that a day after Delta announces it will cut half its workforce that things don’t exactly work as promised?

In other “Delta really hosed me” news, my friend flew into town for a few days visit. She flew Delta. Her checked bag was 100% soaked through and all of her clothes had this delightfully rancid smell to them. Now, granted neither she nor her bag caught fire, but who knows what happened to her bag.

February 29 is a date that occurs only every four years, in years evenly divisible by 4, such as 1988, 1996, 2008 or 2016 (with the exception of century years not divisible by 400, such as 1900) for the Gregorian calendar, which is most widely used in the world today. These are called leap years, and February 29 is the 60th day of the Gregorian calendar in such a year, with 306 days remaining until the end of that year. February 29 is also known as bissextile day or Leap Day.

There are only a few hours left in the day, so any ladies out there hankering to become betrothed (to me) need to act fast on the tradition that women may make a proposal of marriage to men only in leap years, further restricted in some cases to only February 29. Best as I can tell you really have nothing to lose… tradition states that “if the man rejects the proposal, he should soften the blow by providing a kiss, one pound currency (1 British pound = 1.9847 U.S. dollars), and a pair of gloves.”

p.s. I totally stole the “Happy Leap Day” idea from Katy…

I am declaring February as Brian’s Month of Many Things Space-y.

To date I have:

• Watched live coverage on NASA TV of STS-122 (Atlantis) blasting off into space.
• Which inspired me to purchase and watch an all time favourite movie, Space Camp.
• Which inspired me to watch The Right Stuff.
• Which indirectly lead me to a Flickr meetup and first visit to Udvar-Hazy where I saw, among other things, the original Space Shuttle Enterprise.

And today, well, today was the space hat trick in which:

• This morning the Shuttle Atlantis safely landed at the Cape, flying a final approach that was 20x higher and 7x steeper than a commercial airliner (this has been my most favourite space shuttle fact until I learned today – thanks Heather – that until like 1997 the shuttle had to end each mission by midnight, Dec 31 or else a Y2K-like bug might strike and totally cripple the mission). Anyways, I couldn’t watch the landing live this time, but as consolation I had the official landing blog to read and could chat on the Google with someone who actually likes this stuff more than me.
• Tonight the full moon was fully eclipsed by the Earth’s shadow, and turned a shade close to blood red. Most amazingly there was not a cloud in the sky and the whole show was visible. Somehow the earlier snow storm managed to blow through leaving behind only a slight dusting on the ground. I should mention that t-shirts, shorts, and sandals is not really appropriate eclipse viewing attire when you are in the northern hemisphere and it is February and there is snow on the ground.
• Finally tonight, the United States Navy shot down a man made satellite that was hanging out in low Earth orbit! We, the US of A, did this for your safety and oh by the way, if you are a foreign nation and are worried about, you know, debris and junk check this out:

The military also timed its efforts to minimize the chances that debris would hit populated areas. But the United States is “prepared to offer assistance to governments to mitigate the consequences of any satellite debris impacts on their territory,” according to a report of Rocca’s remarks on the Web site of the Geneva office of the U.N.

See how nice we are? If for some reason “debris” (read: super secret spy satellite parts) has impacted upon your territory we will happily come by and pick it up for you.

Things I might have written many words about had I actually sat down to write them at the time of the event and not now, several days later…

The Best 80s Movie Made In The 90s

Which movie? Why Point Break of course! Keanu, Swayze, Busey… friggin’ John C. McGinley! The all-star quarterback, lawyer, sharpshooting FBI agent gets buddied up with the out-of-shape old timer crank then learns to surf, gets the girl, and stops a spree of bank robberies performed by fellow surfers and daredevil skydivers who dress as the ex-presidents.

Would somebody please put an end to the writer’s strike? This is the kind of material America is clamoring for! And what’s better than watching this movie from the comfort of your living room couch on a Friday night? Try introducing this classic to your friend who at the time of its release was only seven years old.

Persepolis

The cartoon network is not a channel I ever surf to and I’m never first in line at the box office for the latest Pixar release, but there was something intriguing about this Persepolis movie… whatever it was, the buzz machine worked and Saturday night, beers in hand, we ended up at the front of the line to see a feature length, French language (with English subtitles), black and white cartoon. And it was great. Really, really great. Because it’s got this great story about a girl and a country and a war and… I don’t want to say too much, but I enjoyed it. And though when the credits rolled and my friend leaned over to ask what I thought, and all I could say (and in perhaps not the most convincing tone) was “I liked it,” the fact is that like with most things my brain was still working it over and it would take a while longer for my opinion to fully form. My friend Estee likes to call this “the highway”… Imagine a long, straight, flat highway (like I70 through eastern Colorado) and that’s the kind of path a lot of my thoughts have to take before they can be spoken (or in this case written). Metaphorically, questions asked at the KS/CO border will be answered in Denver.

Sorry, that was a bit of a tangent… the point is, if you can, think about seeing Persepolis. It’s actually way better than Juno.

Orienteering Meets & Flickr Meetups

Sunday morning was spent running around a park in the cold with friends and a camera. Sunday afternoon was spent running around a city in the cold with friends and a camera.

About the Flickr Meetups I have this to say… I’m really starting to enjoy them. This is not to say that I did not enjoy them before, but the whole meeting and talking to new people has never been my strongest skill (thus photography, right?) and now I find myself looking forward to seeing the newish yet familiar friendly faces. It’s possible I have a problem though, because Monday night I totally had a feverish dream about Flickr and taking photos of people taking photos of people taking photos…

Smash & Grab

Monday morning I went to my car and discovered that someone had broken that lesser known commandment… thou shall not covet thy neighbors consumer electronics. The driver’s side window had been smashed into little green pieces and the windshield mounted personal GPS (a great Christmas present from Dad) had been ripped out of the car. Shit.

I called the police non-emergency number, then work to let them know I’d be late (that turned out to be quite the understatement as I didn’t get into the office until 4pm), then I called my insurance company (they rock), then my folks (had to tell somebody and they’re the only ones not working at 10am on a weekday), then I called the body shop who would be repairing the damage, and then finally Enterprise, who just like their commercials say, came to pick me up. Ugh. Not a great way to start off the week.

The rest of the week so far…

Work, work, and more work. Dinner at Kilroy’s with Dad who was in town for one night only. More work. A birthday party for Jess meant I got to legitimately geek out on some WW stuff which is always fun. And I also got to open some packages and everyone loves doing that!

I also need to finish writing a 700 – 1000 word story about racing off-road triathlons (due Friday). There’s no greater inspiration like a last minute deadline.

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