At some point or another we've all been heckled by the man for our photography but this is taking it to an extreme. Turns out photography based t-shirts aren't even safe. Jared Polin, of Fro Knows Photo recently had a run-in at a Six Flags amusement park because of his signature "I SHOOT RAW" t-shirt.
In the original story (from his Raw Talk podcast) Jared describes being stopped by security just inside the gates where security personal and supervisors demanded he wear another shirt. In the video, shot on his iPhone, The Fro tries to coax the security personnel into explaining what exactly is inappropriate about his shirt only to get vague answers involving the shirt's potential for a double-meaning. The situation finally resolves with Jared being forced to purchase another shirt (he opted for a women's shirt that read: VIP, Very Important Princess) as seen below.
Ironically enough Jared's shirt wasn't the only one with potential double meanings, below are three of his favorite offenders.
After the fact, Jared was tweeted to by Six Flags thanking him for his understanding and cooperation.
[Via Jared Polin @ Fro Knows Photo]
For pro-tips on avoiding trouble with the fuzz, check out John Schell's article: How to Shoot in a Big City and Not Get Hasseled by The Man.
He should have just had a photo of a semi automatic on this t-shirt as well. Security wouldn't have dared stopped him for fear of violating his 1st and 2nd amendment rights
Just what I thought :D
Maybe his shirt should have the US-flag as background. That should be fine as well.
They probably prefer JPEG...
more like Small JPG... I kinda want to make a shirt that just says "I LIKE IT ROUGH!" or "SIZE MATTERS"... and see if they stop me....
Maybe they know better and prefer shooting jpeg
good one :D
america.. land of the free.
and some ami morons really believe that.. lol...
americans have long given up on freedom because they are headless chickens, afraid of everything.
we lived in europe for decades with the IRA, RAF etc.. and are not such cowards.
Can somebody explain? Did he buy this post? because I have never seen fro on this site I know that he doesnt have so cool videos as von Wong what can so easily go viral, but he has a pretty good education marketing and branding content that I would expect to see him on blogs more often. I ussualy start following photographers from blogs like this but not fro. I just wonder if any pro photographers have to pay for posts here because they got much more recognition.
No this was not paid. We found the video and thought it was interesting. None of the photographers we feature (even the ones where it's just a showcase of a project or their overall work) have ever paid.
alright thanks, it is interesting but for example he had pretty good interview with Joey L what was kind of motivating and talking about how he started and so on..I mean it's good...keep one eye on him :D
I was under the impression that Fstoppers was a place for profession level BTS content and news, Jared's videos are usually more beginner education. Nothing wrong with that, I WISH I had discovered his videos when I was breaking my head over shutter speed, f-stop, and lenses.
Genius, an American company worried about double meanings and potentially the word SHOOT. This coming from a nation where gun control is a joke and 000's die each year from gun related incidents. Maybe focus on what is really important and not a T-Shirt.
It all starts with people! If you have a security guys who just follow lines from the booklet they got chance to read when they got hired, well common sense is going to be missing in these kind of situations :) I like to visit USA with my family but how some people are brainwashed there is unbelievable. Btw, Jared handled that pretty decent way regarding his nerves. Before I'd exploded in this kind of situation I would rather simply returned the tickets and went for a picnic to a free park where I could wear my own T-shirt and enjoy taking pictures of my kids feeding ducks. And the word SHOOT and overreactions in the states for that? Hypocrites. Video games full of blood sold and advertised on daily bases I bet even in themes parks and during prime times, and when a photographer uses it in a slang but proper way then you get to hear - Sir you have to leave !? Common people, wake up and use the brain cells! And photographers down from the states, watch your language in the future when you have a family or wedding session in public place because before you say - let's shoot some great pictures you might have a swat team around you next time! This is sarcasm but there is not so far from it to the reality after watching this. THINK! Thanks for sharing :)
Not only he is tool and not even a good photographer but he has to realize something. Private business can discriminate based on clothing. It's stupid, but they can. What about all the kids getting suspended from school wearing american flag tshirts? If they find offensive, they don't have to give a reason. They can't discriminate against your race, gender or sexual orientation, but if they don't like your stupid hair or what you're wearing they have every RIGHT to kick your ass out.
He got the reaction I assume he has been waiting for. Knowing that "I Shoot Raw" has different meanings and is open to interpretation he should have not gotten as upset. And in this case maybe " I shoot" can hold one meaning while "I Shoot Raw" may have a sexual meaning and I am sure he was fully aware of that and thought it unique when he came up with the phrase. Don't get upset when called out because someone took the shirt as it was intended, to make one pause and question what it meant. As stated it was private property, there are rules in place and they do not have to explain anything. I know what it means, other photographers know what it means but not everyone is a photographer...Just almost everyone. Not saying it's right or wrong. Just saying the shirt got the reaction it was intended to get just at the wrong time with the security following orders from someone that interpreted the shirt in a way that it broke the rules.....But, now "the video is out there for the world to see"...Excellent marketing...just took awhile. Now maybe everyone will want one.
Sad though it may be, I have seen that slogan for years before he wore this shirt. It was just as obnoxious back then.
As did I... Got tired of people always asking me 'RAW or jpeg?'.. I printed it on a few sleeves and backs during workshops. I laughed when he took it up..
How is this worth a 12 minute YouTube video? A number of things: "I shoot RAW" (in giant letters) is approximately as obnoxious as it can get, and to elaborate upon what security is saying, it is a well-known euphemism for sexual activity without a condom. This should not have been a surprise otherwise the shirt loses its double entendre, and would be pointless to declare as a slogan. Second: no, security were obviously not up to the task of handling the situation with clarity and concision. But none of those factors are relevant when Fro simply starts harping on them after he explains what it means; he's either totally unaware of the double-entendre, or was more interested in playing a spiteful game of "come out with it", just to refute them on textual grounds when they do. Overal, I don't believe a "correct" outcome to this could be predicted, with either him getting away with the shirt (in which case likely to rile up more than a few parents), or, as we saw, him changing the shirt in deference to overly cautious park policy...
Guess who is not getting inside
http://i57.tinypic.com/24qmmoj.jpg
Living in Oklahoma an elderly gent once stopped me and asked if RAW was a brand of ammunition, so I suppose the context is there for some people.
One could argue that a calmer explanation could've helped the situation. But judging from the stubbornness I sense from these "supervisors", I very much doubt it would've made a difference.
Disney didn't mind my shirt.
In the land of the free...
I don't care much for Fro guy but this "one" time I have to agree with him on this. But I will say, if this happened to Casey Neistat I would have actually watched the video and read more then 2 paragraphs because I know it would have been worth it. He would have showed back up with a suitcase of different shirts testing them out, not to mention he would have walked the park several times over finding other examples that hadn't been flagged yet by security to make his point. What he wouldn't have done was sit in front of a microphone boring the hell out of me.
Classic scenario, handled terribly!
The security chick thought there was a problem and didn't know any better. Rather than filming her, repeatedly trying to make her look dumb in front of her colleagues by having her justify her clear lack of judgement, take her aside and calmly explain what i shoot raw means. Saying it's not jpg to someone who know nothing about photography doesn't mean much. It's probably as foreign as ASA to a large number of people who browse this site.
What jared did is just increased her resistance to change her mind and locked her in cognitive dissonance. Most people wouldn't change their mind if they thought they would look weak if front of their colleagues and what jared said and did put her on the defensive. She's clearly an emotional and literal idiot that just obeys orders.
Ask her if she owns a digital camera. If she can relate, if not go ahead and explain to her the formats available when capturing images. Go on to say that so many photography fans debate wether to shoot jpg or raw... then explain the meaning behind your very clever slogan!
I would've been let in, or at least got a free shirt from her! ;)
What a waste of MY time! Frankly, certain articles in this site make me wonder If I'll return.
It's NJ, which is practically a communist state. Such nonsense. Worried about a t-shirt. Is the t-shirt going to start a riot or something? I assume it's no problem to have 15 year old girls walking around the park with their ass cheeks falling out of their shorts...that's family friendly.
I used to work in a call center for a bank. Came into work with a t-shirt showing a pictogram of the "do not litter" type (small guy trowing trash in a can...). But instead of trash it was a gun, and the t-shirt read "keep our streets clean". Basically calling for less guns and less violence...
Still got flak from my boss. Retards run the world now...
Jared, with all do respect, you made the shirt because you know it has a "double meaning"...that's what makes your slogon appeling. But for you to get offended when a private company doesn't want to let you on their property, because your shirt had the exact impact you were hoping for, well that shows a little something about you sir.
Your next series of "I Shoot Raw" shirts should have the actual definition of Raw on the back.
raw format
A camera raw image file contains minimally processed data from the image sensor of either a digital camera, image scanner, or motion picture film scanner. Raw files are named so because they are not yet processed and therefore are not ready to be printed or edited with a bitmap graphics editor.