New York City Targets Photographers

As Occupy Wall Street cranks on, NYPD is reportedly targeting people with video cameras and SLRs for arrest. Gothamist has more. This has got to be the most ill-considered policy I've ever heard of, because even if you confiscate the media from the person you're arresting, any other media people nearby will still record what you're doing, and they'll have pretty strong sympathetic reactions. Even if you succeeded in preventing everyone with professional equipment, there have to be hordes of cell phones and flip cams out there. Welcome to the age of Grassroots Journalism, NYPD. Go, smart mob, go!

In related news, the NYPD has gone insane. Ring of Steel? With firepower. Ring of fire...

Forgetful Photogs, Part II

Another great trick as a photographer is to photograph something you need to remember, whether it's a street corner, a map, or the written directions to get to a shoot location.

You might have lost that scrap of receipt that blew off your dash and had scrawled in-between cheetos grease "Left on Birminghamshire, Straight through the right, Hard left at the light, Bribe the bridge troll with a bit of danish, Second star to the right, Straight on till morning." But all it takes to get it back is a quick zoom on the screen of your $3000 SLR if you took the ten seconds to photograph it.

This is also great if you have any of a slew of new cheap p&s cameras that offer GPS tracing. You know the clock will be right (it's running of nuclear decay from outer space accurate enough to tell you where you are within three feet) and the camera will remember where you were (maybe not actually accurate to three feet, but close enough). The icing on the cake? There's video, and audio! Make a verbal note of what Nately's girlfriend's little sister you were watching said when she finally bit your hand and ran away from you in a city you've never been to before. Bonus points if you have video of her running away. You'll know it's south by southwest because lucky you, there's a camera built into your compass!

But seriously, there's limitless applications, especially with cameras, audio, and GPS built into almost everyone's cellphone these days. It's even handy for comparison shopping, where you can compare part numbers and prices from different stores when you go to buy a washing machine.

Stop drowning in scraps of paper and lost memories.

Photographers Tend To Be Forgetful

What was I talking about?

Oh, Right.

One thing online descriptions of Mnemonic Link seem to neglect is how powerful it is to personalize it.

Linking the number 13 to a black cat is kinda tenuous, but linking 13 to the number on the house I live in is not. Similarly, if you pissed you pants once because an elevator stuck between the 12th and 14th floors, or the best kiss you ever had was seven minutes in heaven at Sarah Petersen's 13th birthday, those are much stronger links. The idea is that you are developing a personal story by linking things in a way that you will both remember them and be able to identify them as unique.

Tuesday I was ecstatic because I took a lunch order from a coworker who wanted two plain slices, and a small salad with cesar dressing, and I thought up the mnemonic "Pizza-Pizza!" It's about as perfect as a mnemonic as I have ever seen, and I'll give a present to anyone who can name four reasons why.