More Student Blogs

Some sent, some found. (Are you trying to hide these from me or something?)

Rusty Bailey - no photos, yet. (Right?)
Tyler Goforth
Waites Laseter

Blogging For Bucks

Sort of ... Dr. Kaye Sweetser points out that here is now a scholarship for bloggers ... and, at $10,000, it's, like, real money. (I'm SO going after my undergrad degree again with this.)

More details details are on the CollegeScholarshop.org site.

Burning Man 2007

The Las Vegas Sun has videos - and Flickr photo feed - up from this year's Burning Man festival. This goes well beyond what a "normal" broadcast station would do on this type of story - it has the traditional journalistic narrator, as well as interviews, but adds text and stop-motion style photography to the package.

It's smooth, sophisticated - and integrates well. You have videos, slide shows, maps, panoramas and blog posts, all collected together.

ANOTHER New Student Blog

Sara Guevara is now online (again) and posting.

Who's next?

For the Sports Shooters

Slots still available for the SportsShooter Academy Boot Camp in early November.

New Student Blog

Kelly Wegel has joined us in the blogosphere ... where are the rest of you?

The New Yorker on the Leica

What an odd pairing, but ... the New Yorker has a piece on the Leica M-series of cameras.

In the Wild New World, Thieves Abound

Outside the realm of photojournalism but certainly a legal issue many of us are dealing with ... a blogger (who's a laywer, of all things) had a photo of one of his kids lifted from Flickr and dropped onto a post on babble.com (a parenting site) - a post about child lead poisoning.

So, aside from the copyright violation (even under a "creative commons" license you usually can't use the image on a commercial site), an instance like this could become a libel case. By associating that child's parent or guardian with lead poisoning, it's implying some level of negligence.

Type Show

Didn't see anything about this until today ...

The Broad Street Gallery in Athens has a show up called "Snap to Grid," on Brett MacFadden's experimental typography.

Show runs through Sept. 28, I'm going to wander over there soon ...

Matador Traverse Award Series for College Students

MatadorTravel.com, a web site for travelers, is starting up a competition for college photographers and writers. You'll need to create a login to see the contest bits, may be worth your time if you've got some images in your archives. (Login requirements removed.)

(As an aside, editor David Miller has some UGA/Grady ties and had us take a look at some of the language before this went public.)

Finding the Way Home

MediaStorm has posted their latest package by Brenda Ann Kenneally looking at a family two years after Katrina.

I see some interesting things in this 10 minute piece, but I'm curious what others think. So you speak first.

Starry Community

This has almost - almost - nothing to do with photojournalism, but it's kind of cool ...

According to a story in this morning's Athens Banner-Herald, there's a new community forming in Taliaferro County. Themed communities are nothing new (look at golf or motor racing developments around courses), but this one is somewhat unique - it is focused on astronomy. Located on a hill 40 miles southeast of Athens, the 10 acre plot has one unique feature - a lack of light pollution.

Photo content: You can do astrophotography remotely now.

There's a photo to be made out there ... somewhere ...

The Legacy of Joe O'Donnell

Photojournalist Joe O'Donnell died in August and, since then, there have been many questions about whether he actually shot many of the images he took credit for during his life. There's no question about his images from post-atomic bombing Japan, but he also claimed images that predate his becoming a photographer and several iconic images, including one of John F. Kennedy, Jr., saluting at his father's funeral.

The National Press Photographers Association has posted an in-depth look at his life, his work and the controversy.

John Harrington Speaking in Atlanta

John Harrington is, by far, the leading speaker on how to survive and thrive as a freelancer right now. I've seen his presentation in a few places and come away with a tremendous amount of new info every time.

He'll be in Atlanta on Monday, Sept. 17 and you MOST DEFINITELY SHOULD GO. There's not many things that will affect your future as a photojournalist as much as how you set up and run your business. Get there, learn, then come back and share.

(UGA students should know we may have some secret funding to offset your fuel costs. HINT HINT.)

I Love This Guy

I have often said I can teach my students almost anything about photography - except where to point the camera and when to push the button. That, at its highest level, just comes from within. I can guide them to that but not teach it.

So Aaron Johnson's (no relation) comic strip today has me laughing out loud.

One Flash, Lots of Effects

Back in February, PhotoshopTV had Joe McNally on talking about using a single strobe for some of his work. Go to the 12:30 mark for his bit, runs about seven minutes.

FREE PIZZA - And a New Media Talk Here On Campus - Jim Alred, Tuesday, Sept. 18

Did I get your attention with the headline? Should I make it bigger?

FREE PIZZA!!!!!!!!

Jim Alred, New Media Director for the Rome (Ga.) News-Tribune will be doing a public talk in Grady College's Drewry Room on Tuesday, Sept. 18 at 12:30. You need to RSVP to Sophie Barnes by Monday, she's in room 233.

Alred will speak in some classes, but more info is always better, right?

How They Covered Katrina

For the second anniversary of Hurrican Katrina, the New Orleans Times-Picayune has put out a 25 minute long video talking about the photo department handled the disaster. Well worth your time.

The Error of Our Ways?

I took a cognitive psychology class years ago (with a brilliant professor who's moved on from Syracuse) who had us analyze science stories in mass media publications and then compare them to the original research. So when this Editor & Publisher story about research comparing "user" sites and traditional media came along, I was, well .. shocked.

"Mass media" means it's for the masses, you know? The News Coverage Index looks at general subscription news papers, yet the three web sites they targeted (Digg, del.icio.us and Reddit) are mostly technology oriented sites. The users are all geeks, not mainstream news consumers.

So ... uh, hello? Of course they're going to be vastly different. Geez ...

The Forgotten Lens

Well, hopefully none of the 3710 students have forgotten this lens as each of you was issued one last month ...

Regardless, an interesting treatise on the wonder of the basic 50 mm lens over on Gary Voth's site. I've decided my 24 mm is my standard lens, but have been thinking a second body with a 50/1.4 would be a great walk-around kit. (I learned on a Pentax Spotmatic with a Super-Takumar 50/1.4, though "my" first camera had a Rikenon 50/2.0 on it.)

We just don't talk about image craft enough anymore ... need to do more of that.

CPOY Contest

Contest season is starting up ... first up is the College Photographer of the Year, hosted by the University of Missouri. Deadline is October 5 and there's no entry fee.

And check out past winners ... some nice stuff in there.

Go get famous.

iDMAa Conference in Philly

Dr. Scott Schamp writes about it better than I can ... so go read his 10 reasons why you should go. I may.

Great Relief - Rugby Photo Boycott Lifted

I spotted this just recently and was about to blog it ... but it all seems to be settled now. Not sure what some of those terms mean, though ...

Syracuse Student Detained, Questioned

While shooting for a class on the sidewalk in front of the Veterans Administration hospital in Syracuse, student Mariam Jukaku was brought in to a security office and told to delete her images.

Resizing Algorithms

This popped up on David Pogue's blog this evening - a new chunk of software that can "dynamically resize" an image.

It's going to take me a few days to put into words the absolute fear this has just instilled in me.

In the mail today ...

Yes, in the POSTAL mail, not the electronic kind, came a flier (who sends fliers) from Penn Camera advertising ... film and paper supplies for students. And a Promaster 2500PK camera and lens package for $169.95.

Granted, there are inkjet supplies on here, too. And if you're still shooting film some of these deals look good. But ... mailing a flier for film? The irony is itchy.

Penn Camera is a great shop - I've done a lot of business with them over the last 15 years (including a stint working for them), so I'll let this pass now. If you're in the market for film, chemistry or darkroom supplies, I'll post the flier in the lab.