u/Opposite_Serve_9978

I just figured out the theme camp owner I'm camped with is stealing from participants for over 20 years. I'll explain:

This year I camp hopped and joined "Pinhole Project". The owner made a bunch of large pinhole cameras, has a darkroom on the playa, and with a media pass he hosts events daily where we invite burning man participants to use our cameras and they take analog pinhole photos on the playa. They get developed in the darkroom here on playa, he takes high resolution photos of them, and on Saturday he has a gifting day where he gifts some back to the community or if the original artist comes back to get it on that Saturday. Sounded like a cool camp.

He himself takes no pictures. He just drives the media pass truck and gives basic instruction on how to use them.

I started paying attention, and I noticed nowhere does he take down the participants name or info so we know who took what photo. On his high resolution archiving he also documents no info.

He then posts all those digital photos of their pictures on his website with no credit to the photographer, and with no permission from the photographer who took it, and since he only "gifts" back the original photos they shot late on Saturday, almost nobody comes back to get them. He then sells those prints throughout the year with zero credit to the photographer with zero permission and tells everyone he's an artist and those are his photos.

I approached him today saying "hey, can we start taking down the names of who used what camera so we know the owner of the picture they shot, credit the artist who shot it, and so we can also ask them for permission to digitally post or resell them if they don't want their picture back. It would literally take 10 extra seconds to do. Satisfies both BMORG and federal copyright photo policy.

He got insanely defensive and name calling, told me I'm psycho, stormed off looking like he was going physically harm me for the simple act of writing down a person's name of who used our cameras so we can give them credit and ask for reposting permission.

I checked his website, and he has hundreds, thousands of photos posted taken by burning man participants since the 1990s with zero credit to the original artist and no mention of them not even being his photos. This is his only job throughout the year (reselling the prints). He runs an extremely tight photo tour schedule every day and we must have participants take as many pictures as possible. No camera left unused.

I'm physically sick. I'm in a camp where the owner is stealing people's artwork and he's made his career profiting off it breaking both federal copyright laws and burning man rules. I have the resources to move to open camping for the rest of the week, but the 24 other extremely nice campmates depend on me for my role of maintaining the power and water grid. If I leave today (Wednesday) to another camp that will put them in harm. He knows I know his game now.

https://pinholeproject.org/gallery

Starlink is cutting out with the dust, but I recorded over 50mph gusts this morning. Later today will be even blowier.

https://tempestwx.com/station/209083/grid

EURO and GFS still concur.... 80s during the day, 50s at night, no rain, not much in the way for clouds, but it will be dusty giving a surreal extraterrestrial landscape. Enjoy one of the nicest burns in history!

PS: A LOT of large theme camps store their equipment near the Hawk fire, so wish them (and us too) luck getting access to our stuff today before the back roads are also closed off. Most theme camp storage is east of the airport in Lemmon Valley so the risk of theme camps losing equipment is zero as it's naturally blocked by Stead Airport and Swan lake, but it might delay build week for quite a few camps due to road closures.

EDIT: 6pm CST. Latest model updates just released. GFS/EURO still agree cold front.

We're now starting to get in the range of actually somewhat reliable weather models 7-10 days out. EURO and GFS are in 100% agreeance and have been predicting the same thing on every model run now for days. During build week, expect average August weather. Opening weekend a cold front will pass through and bring below average temps throughout the burn. No rain to speak of. Clear blue skies. Winds average, but will get quite gusty when the front passes. Let's hope this actually happens, as it will make one of the nicest burns weather wise in burning man history.

Blah blah blah weather is unpredictable especially this far out, anything could happen between now and then yadda yadda, but it's a general idea of what we might see through Monday. No signals for anything crazy that's all I'm concerned about, like last year raining on Sunday and Monday shutting down the gates for 12+ hours. As of right now, and it could change, that isn't in the books for 2026. THANK YOU NATURE!

Highs in the 80s, no clouds, no rain, wind 15mph gusting 25mph.