Strike and riots in Paris with Leica M8

Thank you all for the feedback and comments. This is always a great learning experience. There were a few questions, points that I will answer in this post :
1) Helenhill. France & Sarkozy are not in that bad of a shape but as any demonstrations, the extremists always try to make as much noise as they can. They are not representative of the main current of thoughts right now. Sarkozy is having some trouble just like any president right now in these difficult times.
2) kdemas: ISO mostly at 1250. Due to changing light conditions (fires, public lightening), at some point I want Auto Iso and 1/15 as set speed.
3) newsgrunt : I agree the the Ken Burns effect is a bit overdone on some slide. I did it in 3 hours as I wanted it to be posted as soon as I could (and I have a day job). Yet the intent was to show the dynamics of anti-riots charges. This is not one charge but I witnessed 6-7 in one hour. They stand firm for several minutes and suddenly charge straight up and beat any resistent. The slideshow was done to incorporate this dynamic as well as the song; one verse = one charge.
4) sooner: yes, demonstration are deeply rooted in French culture for several centuries. It very rare to spend a month without one.
5) Raypa : indeed, the number of people initially reported in my blog was to high. I corrected, thanks. The demonstration were estimated at between 1 to 3 millions in France and about 300'000 in Paris.
6) you are most welcome next time and believe me, the shutter noise does not matter in these conditions 😀 . These lenses sound just perfect ... 😉 I really wished I had a 1.4 min aperture on some shots ...
7) le vrai rdu : I really like your general work and the way you depict the psychology of the French working class.
8) hunghang : as you said M8 or not is not really the issue. Yet, the M8 had two advantages that you only find in a digital rangefinders : I did not have to load film (a great plus in these conditions) and the big FOV of the finder always gave me a good view on what was happening in front of me (especially flying objects as I did avoid one I saw coming in the view finder) I did many shots at 50mm and with a DSLR, the zoom in would have tunneled my sight.
9) Music is by Jack Johnson that is very little known on this side of the Ocean. I should have included it in the credits, my mistake. I highly recommend his CD's, he is an amazing artist.
10) As for the copyrights issues, we are all in different countries so laws and consequences will differ, this could be a very long debate. The intent of this thread was not to discuss copyright issues, which in the end, has to be dealt by myself only.

Hope I did not miss any comments. In that case, let me know.
thanks again for all the feedback!
 
yanidel said:
6) you are most welcome next time and believe me, the shutter noise does not matter in these conditions 😀 . These lenses sound just perfect ... 😉 I really wished I had a 1.4 min aperture on some shots ...
Click to expand...

number six checking in 😛

you are seriously welcome to my lenses next time you do this (or just want to muck around for a weekend to test them out). my nearest metro stops are Charles Michel and Dupleix. rental fee would be a glass of wine or such.

the very best would probably be my Sonnar, though. the 35 pre-asph can get too much flare in these conditions (think flying saucers). the Sonnar was recently recalibrated for f/1.5 by Zeiss and has such beautiful colours at night. note, though, that none of these are coded nor have the proper filters for the M8.

(i also weakened and got that big beast of a lens -- the 75 Lux. i'll have it in a few weeks. a little hunt and peck on the R-D1 but should be sweet on your M8.)

as for the noise -- you'd be surprised. i'd probably have multiple shots of police staring me down! i swear deaf people can hear this camera, even in its Luigi case :bang:
 
amazing stuff! great pictures, it practically comes off as beautifull, make me want to have a riot here 🙂
 
Kevin said:
Copyright protection gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to authorize others to perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.

Reproducing the music in this context does not constitute fair use. Furthermore, using it without permission is not very wise: it could cost you expensive legal fees and statutory damages of USD $750 to $30,000 as determined by a court. If the copyright owner proves that infringement was willful, a court may award statutory damages of up to $150,000 per violation.

Source: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html
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Not a problem. America has no extradition treaty with France, no? 😉

I enjoyed the slide show. Aside from the snide comments about Ken Burns, and his over-used style, I'll say that he has shown how to effectively use still images in video and film production.

I think that a good narration on top of this piece could have transformed it into a real work of documentary journalism. Well done.

~Joe
 
Impressive!

Just wondering how you were able to first of all, be there!, and secondly, how did you manage to get so close to the action?

Great job!

And thanks for posting...😎
 
JoeV said:
Not a problem. America has no extradition treaty with France, no? 😉
Click to expand...

Intellectual property registered with the US copyright office is protected in the USA, Europe and in all other countries listed in different international treaties, such as the WIPO Copyright Treaty, Berne Convention, etc.
 
dave lackey said:
Impressive!

Just wondering how you were able to first of all, be there!, and secondly, how did you manage to get so close to the action?

Great job!

And thanks for posting...😎
Click to expand...
The demonstration was a national one so everybody knew about it. I joined at the end of it as I live close to the site.
As for getting close, the anti-riot forces will let you if you have a camera so as long as you are not in front when they charge, you are fine, they do not dare beat up photographers. I felt more in danger in the back as the crowd was (over)throwing objects and I did not have a helmet. Just have to always keep both eyes wide-open. 😉
 
Kevin said:
Intellectual property registered with the US copyright office is protected in the USA, Europe and in all other countries listed in different international treaties, such as the WIPO Copyright Treaty, Berne Convention, etc.
Click to expand...

True, but the statutory US damages are of academic interest only outside the USA. You have to bring an action; win; and collect the damages. Any of those three steps may be problematic.

I fully take your point about copyright -- it's something I feel very strongly about myself -- but a US-only viewpoint is substantially irrelevant outside the US, just as the US disregards other countries' laws when it suits them.

(This is not an attempt at a political thread, or USA-bashing, just a realistic assessment from someone who collected a law degree a long time ago).

Oh: and Yanidel. Thanks.

Cheers,

Roger
 
Great series,
A faster lens would have been a big asset in this situation.
 
Careful now!

Careful now!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_copyright_law

Proprietary Rights: The author has the right to authorize the reproduction of the work (droit de reproduction) and to allow its public performance (droit de représentation): he or she may also prevent the reproduction or public performance.
Click to expand...

Contrary to the position in most Common Law jurisdictions, the breach of proprietary rights is a criminal offense in France: contrefaçon (Arts. L335-2 to L335-4). This attracts a fine of up to 300000 EUR and a term of up to three (3) years imprisonment. These penalties are increased to a fine of up to 500000 EUR and a term of up to five (5) years imprisonment if the offense is committed in an organized group (bande organisée). There is no distinction between the breach of French copyright and the breach of foreign copyright, though the breach must occur in France to be punishable. The import of infringing copies into France, and the distribution of such copies, are punished under the same provisions and are subject to the same penalties.
Click to expand...
 
This is way cool.
I managed to make my own slideshow for my friends but was wondering if there was an easy way to host it? All I have is a photobucket/flickr/zenfolio.

Any help?
 
yanidel, very good presentation. I liked the rate of image change and the KB effect. If it was overdone, it was overdone very slightly. Congrats on making good use of the situation and your skills. I was educated by it all.

sooner said:
Great photos from a beautiful and vibrant city. As an American, what impresses me is that the French still bother to hit the streets about something. I honestly don't know what it would take for Americans to protest like that. Here in convservative Oklahoma, at least, even the disaster in Iraq only brought out half a dozen protesters, and they were usually jeered by passerbs-by. Even at the height of Bush's power and folly, there were no protests. Too much time away from the TV, I guess.
Click to expand...

One day year and a half ago, I began walking the streets of Milwaukee like I normally do, keeping my eyes open for something interesting. When I saw some mounted police, I asked them what was going on. I was told a protest march was about to start, defending an alderman that was locked up for various crimes. One of those times I was in the right place at the right time. Here's a link to one image I made from that march:

http://www.pbase.com/marke/image/83640159/original
 
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