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[bryant]

A few months ago, Ryan of the Dead Parrot Society debunked the claim that certain photographs of an execution on Haifa Street, in Baghdad, were taken from close range. Ryan is the online producer for a Washington State newspaper; he has experience with news photography and the ability to ask real photographers questions. So he did. He found out that the photos in question were almost certainly taken from a distance.

This hasn't stopped Powerline and Michelle Malkin from continuing to perpetuate the myth that the photographers were standing right next to the execution.

That issue seems, at first, as if it's tangential to the bigger question of cooperation -- but it's not really. Consider: if I say "the photographer got a picture of the execution from a block away, which proves that the terrorists knew the photographer was there," does that sound reasonable? Not so much. That's very different than saying "the terrorists were right next to the photographers, so the terrorists must have had a reason to leave the photographers alone."

Comments

Foreshortening

[eyelessgame.livejournal.com]

Telephoto pictures have different vanishing point behavior than close-up photos. I was disappointed that Ryan didn't mention the physics of the matter. (I agree with him but wish it had been made clearer.)

The most obvious example that occurs to me (being a reformed baseball fan) is the center-field camera that shows the pitcher, batter, and catcher, almost but not precisely lined up -- and each appearing almost the same size despite the fact that the pitcher is fifty-nine feet closer to the camera than the batter is. If the camera were standing on second base taking the same shot, the pitcher would be twice the height of the batter, because the *ratios* of the camera:pitcher and camera:batter distances are what determine the relative sizes of the subjects.

In the case of this picture, those aren't close-up shots -- you can tell because the line of vehicles behind the subjects of the picture change in size very little, and the subjects of the picture aren't much larger than they would be if they were standing next to the closest vehicle (the pickup truck). I don't feel compelled to do a precise measurement or stage the shot myself, but that's the way you determine it, and it shouldn't have to be a matter of asking an expert photographer, it's just physics.

anyway, I guess I should have noticed the original hoo-ha and said this in December when it was being shouted about.