It’s hard to remember, but in 2006 Wikipedia had just said copyrighted photos–like publicity shots and film stills–couldn’t be used.  This was a huge deal and caused a lot of bitterness.  People were angry.  Senior editors walked off.

Times change:  today, no respectable editor would argue for the wanton use of copyrighted images (there are a few ‘certain circumstances’).

Back in the day, I uploaded images to Wikipedia that lacked the basic standards of information.  In 2006, you didn’t need to justify the work’s import nor its origin.  The rules were fast, loose and ever-changing.

A small subgroup of my Creative Commons photos were uploaded in that era.  They may now be deleted.

They are no loss.  In 2006 I was shooting with a Fuji 1.3px point-n-shoot.  But also included were my crappiest-but-favorite uploads from 2002, Cuba and Imitation of Christ.

So here are two Creative Commons 3.0 licensed photos to be deleted from Wikipedia.  These photos are no loss for the encyclopedia.  They are unremarkable and low quality.  But they are personal favorites because of what they symbolize in my photographic and personal development.

I decided to clean them up a little, so I give you the original, and the cleaned-up version I would have uploaded today:

The original above is of Cayo Levisa, a private island where Ernest Hemingway used to fish off  the coast of western Cuba in Pinar del Rio.  There are only 20 bungalows to rent on the entire island.  It’s unspoiled in a way that I know that once the American travel embargo is lifted that it will never be the same.   Unfortunately, this is the best my low-res 2002 digicam took.  Below is my 2010 improvement of it:

This photo below was one of my street shots of the recycle hounds that gather around the Key Food recycling center where they get cash for their deposits.  There are people who make their livings by walking the streets of New York looking for discarded aluminum cans and bottles.  These people usually fall into two categories (based upon my observation over 10 years): Asian immigrants and long-term homeless people who might be better classified as “independent spirits”.  This was my 2006 attempt to capture them:

And here is how I would have uploaded the same shot today:

Between Saturday Night Live, Scare Tactics and 30 Rock, Tracy Morgan has become a one man gang of hysterical. Now he’s written a book about his experience, I Am the New Black. Amongst its revelations are how he felt about his former Saturday Night Live cast members:

“I had my finger on the pulse of urban comedy, but when I brought my act to ‘SNL,’ those motherf*****s just felt bad for me. None of the cast i came up with saw this future for me. No, sir. All i have to say about that is, where’s Chris Katan now? Where’s Cheri Oteri now? That b***h can’t even get arrested. … It’s all right; I don’t mind. It’s hard to get mainstream America to catch up. Mainstream America has just learned the words to Sugarhill’s ‘Rapper’s Delight’! And we don’t do that s*** no more! Jay-Z and Lil Wayne don’t sound like that! No one sounds like that no more!”

On friends who were only interested in his money:

“I’ve got friends who want money but don’t want to do anything to earn it. They won’t hold down a f*****g McDonald’s job to feed their own kids, but now that I’ve got money they want to come and work for me. I don’t know what the f*** makes them think i want them working for me if they won’t get off their a** to provide for their own family. I’ve lost a lot of friends that way, friends who feel like they deserve a place on my payroll. They don’t get it: I don’t need an entourage. I don’t need motherf*****s to play Xbox with me. I’d rather play Xbox with my kids.”

Below are Creative Commons photographs of Tracy Morgan that I released under the 3.0 attribution license that are now found on Wikipedia and my Flickr Creative Commons stream.

Below are Creative Commons photographs I released under the 3.0 attribution license that I took of Bernadette Peters at the premiere of Don McKay at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival. They are now available on Wikipedia and my Flickr Creative Commons stream.

Below are Creative Commons photographs I released under the 3.0 attribution license that I took of Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker at the premiere of Wonderful World at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival. They are now available on Wikipedia and my Flickr Creative Commons stream.

Although I’m in retirement from my Wikipedia photography, if you looked at my recent contributions to the Creative Commons you would think differently.  I’m uploading a lot of photos that time did not permit me to upload; I’m taking care of the housekeeping.

Below are photographs I took of Swoosie Kurtz at the premieres of An Englishman in New York (with Cynthia Nixon and John Hurt) and PoliWood (with the eminent John Guare) at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival for the Creative Commons under the 3.0 attribution license. They are now available on Wikipedia and my Flickr Creative Commons stream.

She doesn’t have a Wikipedia article (yet), but Ling the ethnically Chinese, Malyasian superbeauty was already a Yahoo! Model of the Month (whatever that means):

Ling has worked with Lagerfeld, Armani, Todd Oldham, Fendi, Gaultier, Donna Karan, Valentino, and Chanel among many others. She has been captured by the masters of fashion photography including Peter Linbergh, Mario Testino, Gilles Bensimon, Ellen von Unwerth, Patrick Demarchlier, Walter Chin, Irving Penn, Glen Luchford and Richard Avedon, who recently photographed Ling for the prestigious Pirelli Calendar 1997. Ling has appeared in editorial spreads around the world for Vogue (America, French, Italian, German, Spanish and Singapore), Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire (American, French, Italian, German and Malaysian), Elle (American, French, Japanese and Singapore), and many more.

In addition to all that, Ling is now in the Creative Commons, with the photos on this post licensed under the 3.0 attribution license. They are now available on Wikipedia and my Flickr Creative Commons stream.

The United States Geological Survey put out this illustration of geological time that is worth sharing.  It starts from nothing, and then spirals up showing the evolution of species and epochs.  It is today’s Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Day.  Click on it to make it huge and get more detail; it’s well worth it.  For instance, in the Devonian Period–right in the center of the picture–you can see a little amphibian starting to crawl out of the water:

Hey Andy Schlafly: like I said, the image is PD, so you can upload it to Conservapedia.

I rarely touch up my photography, although I did bend to the wish of one cross-eyed author who apparently ensures she never appears cross-eyed in photographs.   Lighting, color, contrast and tone are all fair game, however, and necessary.  I was with Peter Palladino on a photoshoot of Lypsinka, and he agreed that it’s easy to be less than perfect about lighting and the model, because it can always be fixed later.

I still make an amateur mistake with my photography, and oversaturate the skin tones instead of getting them to be more accurate.  I recognized this when I started to compare my Tribeca photographs with the ones from other photographers at the events.  I think I have an eye for framing and finding a good shot, but I haven’t developed the essential eye for color.

Lately I’ve been collaborating with Megapixie on Wikimedia Commons to redo some of my more high-profile shots that never looked right to me the way that I had done them.  Here are befores (mine) and afters (Megapixie’s).  Note, Megapixie’s is correct, when compared to the same shots at the same events from the professionals at Getty or Wire Image.

Michael Bloomberg

Will Arnett

Julianne Moore

Eliza Dushku