"Do You Have a Photograph of Jesus?"

It happens all the time - photo archivist get a call looking for a photo of something ... something that could not have been photographed. Laurie Hill has built a video based on the strange requests the Hulton Archive and Getty Images get. 

Thanks to Mike Johnston at The Online Photographer for the link.

And Now for Something Completely Different

So we've been talking about audio slide shows in our classes, everyone's building one (or more) for their final portfolios. In those discussions, we've talked about sequencing still photos in such a way that they emulate video, to some extent. 

Well, some folks in Germany seem to have gone a few steps further ... watch, and enjoy. And think about how you can have some fun. 

SEO for Photographers

"SEO" is "search engine optimization," and it's a little black art we all need to learn. It's what helps your web site get found on the net. It's not enough just to build a beautiful site, you have to keyword it and structure it so potential clients can find you. Levi Wardell over at Black Star Rising has a good overview on SEO for photographers, worth spending some time on.

Alexia Foundation Competition

It's time to start pulling your portfolio together and getting your writing chops worked out. This is an excellent competition - I know, because I worked with the Alexia Foundation for several years. 

Go do it.

Study photojournalism in London Alexia Scholarship pays all tuition for fall semester at Syracuse University London Centre in England

Application deadline is Feb. 1, 2009.


An all-tuition scholarship to study photojournalism for a semester in London, plus a $1000 cash grant is available for the first place winner of the Alexia Foundation Scholarship and Grant Competition.

Four more awards provide partial scholarships and $500 cash grants. Scholarships are for studying photojournalism at the Syracuse University London Center in the Fall of 2009. The cash grants are given whether or not the scholarships are used, and are to be used to help produce the project that is proposed as part of the application.

All students are eligible, graduate and undergrad, as long as you don’t have more than three internships or the equivalent of a year’s professional experience.

Competition rules and information are available at AlexiaFoundation.org
The application process is online at the website and is simple. Submit a story proposal (no more than 750 words), your portfolio (no more than 20 pictures) and a resume.

The competition rules are the same for graduates and undergrads, but the scholarship program is different for undergrads than for winners who are matriculated grad students or are now graduating seniors. Be sure to select link to the proper information at the website under the “Awards” heading in the student rules.

The London Experience is the highlight of a photographer's education at Syracuse University. Limited to 15 juniors, seniors, and graduate students, the London photography program offers a focused study of photography with one course covering picture essays and documentary photography. A second course, Visual Issues in the Media, includes lectures by British newspaper and wire service photographers and by American photographers on assignment in London; field trips to places such as the Royal Photographic Society, the photography departments of Reuters News Services and the Associated Press; and visit to sites such as the Photographers’ Gallery.

In addition to the two required photography courses, a wide range of liberal arts courses, including comparative politics, British history, and English literature are available to complete the course load for undergraduates. Complete academic and financial information about the SU program abroad in London is at http://suabroad.syr.edu/programs/london

For more information, please contact David Sutherland at dcsuther@syr.edu

Where the (Wild) Jobs Are

NPR is looking to hire web producers for Morning Edition and All Things Considered. Why do we care? Read this:

Dedicated Web Producer for Morning Edition, responsible for the show's overall online identity with a special focus on social media, blogging and Web 2.0 functionalities. (Emphasis mine.)

Yep, your mad Facebooking skills might pay off ...

The Migrant Mother's Daughter

CNN has a story on the daughter of the Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange's iconic image from the Great Depression.

UGA PJ Takes Second Place in NPPA R6 Clip Contest

Our own Daniel Shirey took second place in the National Press Photographers Association's Region Six Monthly Clip Contest for his photo of Knowshon Moreno leaping earlier this year. 

Nice pic. 

More on Reuters at Launch Pad 39A

Reuters has posted a 10 minute video that shows how they set up their remote cameras and can now transmit a photo to their clients within minutes of a shuttle launch.

Very cool. 

Internship Opp

Yeah, I know ... it's been kind of slow here on the blog. We're at that point in the semester where everything is piling up on my desk - student work, new course proposals, curriculum review, international proposals for 2010 ...

BUT - this came across Twitter a few moments ago (thanks to Ryan Sholin) and it's too good not to share: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is looking for a social media intern. 

It turns out all those hours on Facebook might pay off for you. Who'd a thunk it?

(Camera) Geek Predictions for 2009

Thom Hogan has posted his predictions on what camera goodies we'll see in 2009. Real inside baseball stuff, but the talk about market share is something to pay attention to. While we focus on storytelling, there's an industry that provides us with the tools to do that storytelling - it's mildly important that we pay attention to that industry.

Burnett's Behind Beijing Video

David Burnett, founder of Contact Press Images and an all-around amazing guy, has published a behind-the-scenes-look at covering this summer's Olympics in Beijing. Long, but if you're a Burnett fan, worth watching. 

The Red & Black Weekly News Update

The student paper here at UGA, The Red & Black, has started doing a weekly news update - a short video highlighting what's coming up in the week's paper. Each one has gotten a little smoother, a little more polished. They've played with the format a couple of times and the newest iteration came out this week with a walk-around-the-newsroom idea.

Does it work? 

NYTimes.com on Election Night

Here it is - how the NYTimes.com home page evolved throughout election day.

Very cool.

UNC Students in Tierra del Fuego

South of Here is a collection of multimedia pieces produced by students from the University of North Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Facultad de Communicaciòn at the Universidad de los Andes in Santidago, Chile. 

An interesting mix of storytelling - audio slide shows, videos and Flash animations. 

Two Years on the Road

Passed along by former UGA PJ student Kat Netzler, a look at almost two years on the campaign trail with Barack Obama by Scout Tufankjian. 

Other Students, Other Work

As many of you know, our workshops are modeled after those run by the photojournalism folks at my alma mater, Syracuse University. They had their fall event a few weeks back and have posted their pieces online, take a look and let me know what you think. 

More students, more faculty, more guests ... how do we beat them in the spring? (He said with a sly grin.)

Princess Leia on CNN?

If you watched CNN on election night (or followed the Twitter comments on it), you got to see an ... well ... entertaining bit of technology - holograms. (Okay, the experts say they were really tomograms.) Poynter has put together a piece explaining them for you, including a video link to CNN's technical explanation. 

Useful? Or just technology for toys sake? 

Special Project Possibility

The following note came across the transom yesterday, contact Dawn Aiello at 706-542-5773 if you're interested in working on this.

My name is Dawn Aiello and I am one of the graduate assistants in the office of Multicultural Services and Programs. Our office is bringing Kip Fulbeck to campus at the end of January and thought it would be a great opportunity to recreate his Hapa Project with UGA students.

In case you are not familiar with his work, Kip Fulbeck asked 1200 people to answer the question, "What are you?" in their own words and accompanied their answers with simple head-on photographs. The photos are displayed in an exhibit and have been published in book form. For more information, please visit http://www.seaweedproductions.com/hapa/default.htm

My vision is to take photographs of students on UGA's campus and ask them to answer the same question, then post these pictuers and answers in high-traffic areas on campus. The purpose would be two-fold; this would be wonderful publicity for our event, but also a chance to spread awareness among our students.

I am writing you this to ask if there is any way that we could coordinate this effort with current photojournalism students, or even students who will be taking these courses in the Spring semester. It does not even have to be a formal co-sponsorship with our office. I would greatly appreciate names and contact information of students who may be interested in helping us.

We Are Citizens, Too

It is a Big Day here in America. Many of my students are fanning out across Georgia and South Carolina as they work on election day projects. We'll be posting stories on The Grady Journal later today, as well as seeing their work on the Greenville (S.C.) News' site. 

But before they dash off, I hope they acted as citizens first, then students, then journalists.

 

The Power of True Multimedia

This ... this ... this is what multimedia can do so well. 

The New York Times, the Gray Lady, has put together a nearly 14-minute long tour-de-force looking at the presidential campaign. It is a stunning combination of photos, videos, audio, graphics and narrations. 

It is a complete package. 

How complete? Pay attention to the "Related Links" box below the main screen It changes throughout, offering up links to other stories the Times has done. But look closely - you can click right now and away from the may piece, or you can save them for later and watch them AFTER you're done with the main piece. 

And that is brilliant conceptual storytelling, the melding of the push and pull formats in journalism. 

Shoot All Day, Edit All Night

Ready to make your first film? Want to maybe get a little something out of the deal? Yeah, this is outside of journalism (maybe, maybe not), but Apple's Insomnia Film Festival is coming up. Register now, then make a movie in 24 hours starting at 9 a.m. on November 15. 

Visualization Lab

The New York Times has a new subsection that lets you look at news stories visually. I could lose days on this ... 

UGAPJs on AutoWeek.com

It took a bit of time, but AutoWeek magazine has posted an online gallery of images from our workshop at the Petit Le Mans. We're starting to look like a real program ... 

So, You Want to Shoot Election Night ...

If you were thinking of heading to Chicago on November 4, here's what the Chicago Sun-Times has learned it will cost you ... and, honestly, it's not as much as I would have thought.

FROM THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN....

The following coverage resource packages are available for purchase:

* Main Riser Position - $935 (Includes 4 Main Riser Credentials, 5'x8' Slot on Covered Main Riser and one 20 amp circuit)
* Main Riser Position with Telecommunications - $1870 (Includes Main Riser Position services, PLUS two unlimited long distance/local phone lines and one wired high speed internet connection)
* Cut Riser Position - $880 (Includes 4 Cut Riser Credentials, 5'x8' Slot on Covered Cut Riser, one 20 amp circuit)
* Cut Riser Position with Telecommunications - $1815 (Includes Cut Riser Position services, PLUS two unlimited long distance/local phone lines and one wired high speed internet connection)
* Press File Seat - $935 (includes 1 Press File Credential, seat in heated Press File Tent, Power, Cable Television, High Speed Wired Internet Service, Catering)
* Satellite Truck Position - $900 (includes 35'x20' parking position and 100 amp electrical service)
* Radio Position - $715 (includes table space and chair behind the riser, power and an ISDN BRI line for radio -- comes with two credentials)

Billing information must be submitted at as part of the request. Your credit card will not be charged until the campaign confirms your coverage resource package request.

(a link deleted)

Additional services may be purchased a la carte:

* Unlimited Long Distance Phone Line - $300
* High Speed Wired Internet - $275
* One 20 amp circuit - $165

For telephone service internet connectivity and additional power, orders must be placed by October 23rd, 2008. For questions on pricing or additional telecommunications assistance, please contact (deleted)

The following credentials may be requested at no cost:

* General Press Area - No Charge (Includes access to bike racked press area with standing room only)

You must fill out the form to the right to request each individual General Press Area credential.

Request media credentials for the Election Night event:

Credentials to access the General Media Area are available at no cost. Please note that the General Media Area is outdoors, unassigned and may have obstructed views. General Media Area credentials do not include access to riser positions, satellite truck parking or the press filing center.

Access to those resources are available for purchase at (link deleted). Space is limited.

Reuters at Beijing

Reuters has posted a video of its photojournalists talking about covering the Beijing Olympics. Runs just over six minutes in length, worth spending the time with.

National Geographic Internship

Yup, your dream can come true ...

2009 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE PHOTOGRAPHY INTERNSHIPS

The National Geographic Magazine will offer two photography internships during the summer or fall of 2009. The program is an opportunity for young photographers to experience first-hand the rigors of life in the professional world. It is also an opportunity for us at the Geographic to scrutinize the work of those in whom we may have further interest. We are proud that many of our regular “shooters” are former summer interns.

One internship is automatically offered to the winner of the College Photographer of the Year contest administered by the University of Missouri, Columbia. For information, go to www.cpoy.org. 

The other internship is awarded based on a portfolio. It is primarily for college students – undergraduate or graduate—but we will also consider someone not currently in school. The purpose of the internship is experience and encouragement to those who aspire to be a photojournalist. Interns must be at least 21 years of age and U.S. citizens, or have appropriate student work documents.

Both internships are for fourteen weeks at a salary of $480 a week. When on assignment away from the city, the Geographic pays all expenses. Transportation expenses to and from Washington at the start and conclusion of the internship are covered by the Society. The interns are responsible for their own housing.

To apply, send us a portfolio of recent work (no more than 30 images), a resume, and a letter of recommendation from a photography teacher or established photojournalist. We are interested in strong photojournalism and your ability to produce a visual narrative. We will also consider an aspiring studio photographer. CDs are the preferred method of submission but portfolios may also be in the form of slides, prints or clippings of any combination, in color and/or black and white. Digital images should be sized to approximately 1600 wide, 72 dpi.

All portfolios must be postmarked no later than January 31, 2009. Send to Susan Smith, Deputy Director of Photography, National Geographic Magazine, 1145 17th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036. Please clearly label your envelope, “NGM Photography Internship” and if you would like for us to return your portfolio, you must include a self-addressed stamped envelope. 

We will notify all applicants via email by early March 2009. Please share this information with anyone who may be interested and eligible. 

Okay, Maybe Palin's Not Supposed to be Pretty?

After the last post about how evil Newsweek was for not retouching a photo of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin comes this post about whether using Palin's legs as a framing device is sexist or not ... 

Note the number of comments - more than 14,000 as of Friday morning. 

This is reminiscent of the photo of a Navy wife published in the Virginian Pilot earlier this year.

Newsweek Gets Blasted for NOT Retouching a Cover

Well, this is an entertaining turn ... Fox News had a segment where Newsweek was taken to task for its cover photo of Sarah Palin ... and it is just bizarre ...

They claim that the cover photo should have been retouched because that's what the fashion magazines do. Umm ... yes, they do. But Newsweek is not a fashion magazine, it's a news magazine.

Granted, a news magazine that has made some serious mistakes with covers in the past, but still ... 

And for those curious as to how Barack Obama has appeared on magazine covers, here's a collection of them in one place. (From someone who probably has too much time on his hands.) I looked for a collection of McCain covers and didn't find one, but a Google image search turns up several. 

UGA Photojournalism at the Petit Le Mans

The American Le Mans Series has posted photos from our weekend workshop at the Petit Le Mans. After spending 16 hours at the track, the Advanced Photojournalism class had captured 55 gigabytes worth of data, totaling somewhere over 25,000 photos of the 10-hour-long endurance race at Road Atlanta.

Four professionals came in to help for the day – freelance Robin Nathan, Billy Weeks from the Chattanooga Times Free Press

 (who shot a video on the Volkswagen support race, as well), Woody Marshall from the Macon Telegraph and Fred Metzler from Canon USA. The students were able to shoot for an hour or two, then head into an editing room to download and get feedback, then head right back out to apply what they learned.

This was the third year that I took the students there, and it's always a highlight for them. Special thanks to the Georgia Press Association who funded the program and Canon USA who helped with technical support.

James Nachtwey's TED Wish

Last year, James Nachtwey won the TED Prize - $100,000 to, essentially, do whatever he wanted to do. He's now done it - a story that looks at Extreme Drug Resistant Tuberculosis. 

Warning: These are not easy photographs to look at.

NPPA Flying Short Course

See us and be seen - looks like we have more than a dozen UGA photojournalism students heading to the Flying Short Course stop in Boiling Springs, N.C., on Friday. Look for us there and say hello.

Flying Short Course schedule, for those heading there ...

• 7:30 a.m. Registration opens
  
• 8:00 a.m. Exhibits open
  
• 8:30 a.m. Welcome
  
• 8:40 a.m. John Harrington
  
• 10:25 a.m. Break
  
• 10:45 a.m. Regina McCombs
  
• 12:15 p.m. Lunch
  
• 1:15 p.m. Kelly Jordan
  
• 2:45 p.m. Dave Honl
  
• 4:15 p.m. Break
  
• 4:35 p.m. Jeff Siner
  
• 5:55 p.m. Sessions End
  
• 6:15 p.m. Portfolio Reviews 
  

Don't Take my Kodachrome Away

I admit, it's been years since I ran a roll through a camera, but this AP story on whether digital imaging has killed off Kodachrome has me thinking of ordering up a few rolls. 

For you young'uns, if you've never shot a roll of film, once, just once, borrow your parents' (or grandparents') camera and run a roll of Kodachrome 64 through it. Send it off and wait for that little box of magic to come back to you ... so worth it.

"Homeless in Atlanta"

John Spink at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has published an audio slide show looking at a homeless woman who lives by the CSX train tracks. All told through her voice in just over two minutes, pay special note to the opening image and the signs in the background. 

I would kill to make an opening image like that ...

Sounds of the Red Carpet

Ever wonder what it sounds like to be a celebrity photographer at a big red carpet event? Well, Max Rossi and Dennis Balibouse let you see and hear what the Venice Film Festival is like.

UGA PJ Alumni in the Wild

One of the featured stories on the Grady College web site this week looks at former student Rebecca Hay who spent the summer as the photo intern for the Atlanta Braves, which turned into a job with the Big South Conference this fall.

From the May graduates, Sara Guevara is working for the Gainesville Times, Lindy Dugger is at the Rome News-Tribune and Josh Weiss is at the Gwinnett Daily Post, all as staff photographers. Jake Daniels is off the campus for the fall as he completes his internship at the Birmingham News. 

Others I've missed?

Newark Star-Ledger Threatens to Close

Yep, they sent a notice to their employees yesterday and posted it to the web - if the Newark Star-Ledger can't get a new contract with the driver's union by October 8, the paper will be put up for sale or close by January 5, 2009. 

The Star-Ledger has been doing some innovative online stuff and isn't a small paper - 350,000 a day and 520,000 on Sunday.

THIS Changes Everything ... Perhaps ...

Canon has announced it's replacement for the long-in-the-tooth 5D, the 5D Mark II. All of the goodness you'd expect are there - higher resolution (a whopping, card-massacring 21 megapixels), better autofocus, better shadow detail, better noise control at high ISO, etc., all with the pure joy of a full frame CMOS chip. 

As with Nikon's D90, there's now a video mode, as well, and it tromps the resolution of Big N's camera -  1920 x 1080 pixel (1080p) resolution versus the D90's 1280 x 720. But that's not what has me tempted to call my Canon guy at 8 in the morning - it's that the 5D has a microphone jack built into it. And that, as any video shooter knows, is the killer feature.

Every point and shoot camera, as well as the D90 has the ability to record ambient sound through a built in mic, but none (that I'm aware of) has the ability to choose the microphone and microphone placement that is optimal for the story you're working on. Bad audio is something viewers just will not tolerate - shaky video is okay if they can hear what's going on. 

With news shooters needing to do video and stills, this camera should allow them to do both with one kit. 

Of course, the price difference between the D90 (around $1,000) and the 5D Mark II (around $2,700) is substantial. But a high definition video camera is more than the difference between them in price. 

Update: Canon also revved their top of the line point and shoot, now called the G10. The big news is the lens goes wider (to a 35 mm/full frame equivalent of 28 mm), but they also crammed 14 megapixels onto a very small chip. I'd rather have the previous chip with this lens, but oh well ... 

Biased Photographers

Honestly, this makes me pretty sick ... 

It is hard enough to do what we do everyday without having "colleagues" gloat about making subjects look bad. 

Shooting Blind

CNN has a story on a group of Israeli photographers ... who are blind.

Not journalism, but ... interesting.

YouTube Tries Journalism ... Again

Google and YouTube have announced a video journalism contest, co-sponsored by the Pulitzer Center and Sony. First prize is a Sony VAIO laptop and $10,000 to do another story.

There are some flaws in the plan, but this may be the start of Google (who owns YouTube) pushing into the concept of  "citizen journalism." 

(Thanks to colleague Kaye Sweetser for the link.)

Last Shot

During the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, Associated Press photojournalist Matt Rourke was arrested while covering a protest. The last shot he got off has been published now, along with his story.

Georgia PPA Convention

This weekend, the Georgia Professional Photographers Association has their annual convention in Athens. (The Southeast Professional Photographers Association convention is here in the spring, too.) There's a trade show (which you can get into for free) as well as a lecture series (which you have to pay for). 

Not a bad opportunity to go look at photo stuff for a few hours.

Jobs Do Exist

The new media hiring revolution appears to be here, as Rob Curley is advertising for folks to join him in the Sun. 

Newspapers may be dying, journalism is not.

Seeing to Learn

Mindy McAdams, Flash Goddess, has a post on picture galleries on her Teaching Online Journalism blog. My Advanced Photojournalism students are required to blog this semester, and I told them I'd share some of the photo gallery-type pages I look at. 

I use the NetVibes.com RSS reader to keep all of these links in one place. (And this is just a very small sample of the stuff I look at.) 

• The Big Picture, from The Boston Globe - This was the first one I found like this. Every few days, they post a series of photos on a theme or story, run really big. Sometimes it's news oriented, sometimes it's thematic. 
  
• Photo Journal, from the Wall Street Journal - Yeah, I was the guy who said for years I wanted to be photo editor for the Wall Street Journal ... back when they didn't run photos. Regardless, another big photo page from around the world. 
  
• Photo galleries from the Atlanta Journal Constitution - Sometimes they're local, sometimes they are not. I wish they'd dedicate more space to photos and less to ads, let a viewer really revel in these images. They're better than more, but not at the Globe or Journal level.
  
• Reuters Photographers - Daily work from the wire, complete with the stories behind them. Sometimes it's about great images, sometimes it's about what they had to go through to make the photos. A lot on planning ahead, an excellent resource for students. 
  
• Joe McNally blog - I've been a huge fan of McNally's work for years. (And it has nothing to do with the Syracuse connection.) His lighting work is amazing, and he lays it all out here from time to time. As much geek as gawk-worthy. 
  

That's just a few highlights, but for students it's not a bad place to begin. 

So, what are you looking at?

The State Fair on Speed

Ben Garvin, late of the Berkshire Eagle and now of the Pioneer Press, has strung together 4,000 still photos to make a two minute video-esque look at the Minnesota State Fair. 

NPPA Flying Short Course - Sept. 26 in North Carolina

Get it on your calendar now - the National Press Photographers Association's Flying Short Course will be dropping in to Boiling Springs, N.C., on Friday, September 26. That stop is less than three hours from Athens.

One of the best in the business on business will be talking - John Harrington. And a whole slate of other great folks, too.

You students know the drill, go join NPPA, see me and you can go for almost free.

College Photographer of the Year Competition

Get your entries together ...

College Photographer of the Year is now accepting student entries for the 63rd annual competition.

As the contest is now completely electronic and there is no longer a printed call for entry for us to send you for distribution to your students, you should have found or will shortly find a postcard in your mailboxes encouraging you to direct students to www.cpoy.org where they can find the entry form and complete instructions on how to prepare and upload images
files as well as read about the awards, the rules and the category definitions.

Entry is free again this year thanks to Nikon Inc. and the deadline is Sept. 26, 2008.

The contest will be judged on the campus of the University of Missouri-Columbia, Nov. 10-15. Judging is open and you and your students are invited to attend.

Covering Hurricanes

Al Tompkins over at Poynter has an interview with Jane Boulen, a tv photojournalist, about covering hurricanes. 

Local Speaker: Jim Fiscus

FYI ...

This Thursday, August 28th, the featured speaker in ADPR 3150 will be
advertising and editorial photographer Jim Fiscus. If you've been to the
National, you might have seen Jim's portrait of the hip hop band Outkast in the
bar (terrific photo!).

We'll meet at 6 p.m. in room 248 of the SLC. Here's a bit more info about Jim
Fiscus:

In 15 years of shooting Jim Fiscus has shot campaigns for Levis, Nike, HBO, and
many others. He was voted International Photographer of the Year for 2006. His
work was featured on two Communication Arts covers, and named #1 on
Campaigns 2008 list of top photographers in the United Kingdom. Jim Fiscus
lives and works from Athens, GA.

"Last Stop"

The New York Times has a neat multimedia feature up on the city's subway system. But they're done it with a little twist: Ever wonder where the train goes after you get off? The rode all of the lines to the end, and then did photos, audio slide shows or videos about the areas at the end of the lines.

(Thanks to Prof. Janice Hume for the link.)

Killer Multimedia Story Idea

The Poynter Institute's Al Tomkins has links to great stories about the decline of inner-city grocery stores - I see this as a great college-town story, too.

Where are students getting their groceries? Athens, Ga., has a lot of grocery stores, some along bus routes, but is there a subset of students (perhaps international students) who don't have cars that are using convenience stores? 

Film vs. Digital

Okay, I admit, I haven't had this argument in a very long time. And I don't want to have it. Really, I just don't care anymore. It has been almost two years since I ran a roll of film through a camera and, as discussed in this post by National Geographic's Director of Photography David Griffin, I shot film because of the camera (my beloved Leica M6) and not because of the medium.

(What? You haven't heard me wax poetic about the beauty of the Leica? *sigh* I so miss mine, but the digital version just isn't there yet. Maybe the next generation will hook me in again.)

Rob Haggert pointed to this entry from his blog, A Photo Editor, and also noted the closing graf, which I shall echo:

At National Geographic we do not require photographers to shoot one way of another–we support both approaches. Ultimately, we care more about what is being photographed and less about how.

Sage advice.

On Marginalized Women

Outside of the realm of photojournalism, but certainly worth looking at - Women are Heroes is a project looking at marginalized women, photographing them and then displaying their images in their communities. 

NPR on Shooting at the Olympics

Short piece on how Michael Steele and Getty Images cover track events in Beijing.

Sun-Sentinel Redesign

Wow ... this is ... different ... 

Images of the newly-redesigned paper are available on the VisualEditors site, and they are a departure from almost everything I've ever seen in a newspaper. 

Will have to follow this closely ...

Planning Ahead - Southwestern Photojournalism Conference

In Fort Worth, Texas, from February 27 through March 1, 2009 the Southwestern Photojournalism Conference will feature:

• James Nachtwey,
Freelance, New York, NY
  
• Ashlie White,
Director of Communications
Adaptive Technologies Inc.
Raleigh, NC
  
• Scott Strazzante,
Staff Photographer
Chicago Tribune
  
• Bob Carey,
NPPA President & Professor at Gardner-Webb University
  
• Billy Calzada,
Staff Photographer
San Antonio Express-News
  
• Matt Miller,
Director of Photography
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
  
• Stanley Leary,
Freelance, Roswell, GA
  

A good line up ...

(Note that this is sponsored by several Christian groups. Having never been, I don't know if that affects the presentation in any way.)

David Burnett at the Olympics

His take on the mid-way point of covering the games, as much introspection as reflection.

"Aloft" David L. Ryan Talks About Shooting from the Air (and not about bigfoot, alicia sacramone or ricky berens)

Boston Globe photojournalist David L. Ryan has long been known for his aerial photography, and now there's an audio slide show of him talking about it. 

(If you looked really carefully, you might see me in the Boston Marathon photos. I can't see me, but maybe you could ...)

Underage Chinese Gymnasts in Do or Die Matchup with Women's Gymnastics star Nastia Liukin over SEO Tips for the Masses

Just learned about this ... Google has a page that lists the current top search terms. If you're writing news headlines, might be worth getting some of these in to raise your page ranking.

(As of this writing, that headline has three of the top 10 terms in it.)

Top Tips for the Video Cook

(Very obscure title there.)

Mindy McAdams, Flash Goddess, has a guest post from Sue Robinson about the recent Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication video workshop. Good tips in her summation.

Things Not to Do on Assignment

Pretty close to the top of my list would have to be, "Don't heckle your subject." 

"The Girl in the Window"

Lane DeGregory and Melissa Lyttle, of the St. Petersburg Times, have published the horrifying story of Dani, a seven year old feral girl - essentially abandoned in her own home - and the efforts of a family to help her.

Steve Myers of the Poynter Institute has an interview with Lyttle and DeGregory about the story and how they approached it. 

A 14 Year Journey

Scott Strazzante and MediaStorm have published his story looking at the transition of a farm into a sub-division, as told through the farm's family and one of the new home's families.

It is awesome.

The story is great, it is well told and it is beautifully shot. Every time I tell my students to shoot more, I will now have an example of why: the pairing of images, similar in composition, from both sides of this story, are amazing.  

Why Facebook is Not a Photographer's Friend

Photo Attorney Carolyn Wright has posted about the terms of service on Facebook - and it's not friendly.

Facebook, I'm sure, is not the only site to have this stuff buried in there. (I should probably go check Blogger.com ...) Please make sure you're reading those pesky terms of service agreements and that you're not giving up anything you value by posting to online sites.

Update: Well, I checked Google's terms of service. It starts out fine ...

Your Intellectual Property Rights. Google claims no ownership or control over any Content submitted, posted or displayed by you on or through Google services. You or a third party licensor, as appropriate, retain all patent, trademark and copyright to any Content you submit, post or display on or through Google services and you are responsible for protecting those rights, as appropriate. (Emphasis their's)

However, they then wrap up with ...

By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through Google services which are intended to be available to the members of the public, you grant Google a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce, publish and distribute such Content on Google services for the purpose of displaying and distributing Google services.

Hrmpf.

The negative side of me says this isn't good, the optimistic side of me says that's just legalese to allow them to do what you've asked (distribute your content via their services). I think I'm going to lean towards the optimistic side on this as there's nothing there about relicensing or redistribution.

What is Social Networking?

Picked up from Steve Yelvington's blog ...

Fonts Personified

Okay, this is kind of geeky and really only the hard-core designers will like it, but ... it is funny.

Paying for "Access"

When does a "news" photographer become a "commercial" photographer? Does an individual have the right to control the commercial usage of their image? Does a school have the authority to restrict who can and who can't profit, commercially, from a student's image?

In several states this issue has come up over the last few years, and now someone is proposing that newspaper pay a "token" amount to public school athletic associations to be able to resell published images.

It's a loaded question, but what do you think?

Lawyer Sues News & Observer Over Staff/Space Cuts

Yep, a lawyer is suing because the paper announced cuts after he paid his subscription. 

So, instead of being able to put money into staff or resources, they now have to spend it fighting off a frivolous lawsuit. But, the lawyer says he could have cancelled his subscription, but "filed the suit to make a point."

Proving, again, that in the legal system, the lawyers always win.

"Greedy Consumers" to Blame for Altered Images?

My academic and professional colleagues have been wringing their hands for the last few years or the idea of "user generated content," also known as "citizen journalism" (a phrase we all despise). News organizations are now dealing, on a regular basis, with video and stills submitted by readers and viewers.

In a piece the Chicago Tribune posted on this issue, Bob Steele, an ethics professor at DePauw University, says: 

We're not only gullible but we're becoming greedy as consumers ... That greed is manifested in putting out a lot of information that is not properly vetted and verified. That's dangerous. Not only does it erode the credibility of news organizations, but it also erodes the confidence of our society in what we see.

Greedy consumers ... an interesting thought, no?

And One More ...

Not as blatant as the Iranian missile mess, but maybe as sensational as some of Weegee's work ... further research has shown that the image of a baby with two legs casts on may not be what it originally was reported. 

I could launch into a bit about not knowing the sources of your information because of the automation of the news-gathering process, but most of you have heard this before ...

Too Many Missles

The headline here comes from Linda Epstein, who posted a link to this New York Times blog about a doctored image coming from Iran. (Really? A government doctoring images? Who would have thought that?)

Maybe now we know where Adnan Hajj is working ... 

Weegee in the Times

Weegee was the first real spot news photographer in a lot of people's eyes. Born Usher Fellig, when his family came through Ellis Island he changed his name to Arthur, he prowled the streets of New York City from the mid-1930s through the late 1940s, always first on a crime scene with his Speed Graphic and cigar. 

The New York Times has a piece on him, worth reading through to the end.

Fox News Channel - Number One for Ethical Issues

Media Matters has a piece up on how two Fox News Channel hosts called two New York Times journalists "attack dogs" because of their reporting on the channel's lead in the ratings. But when they ran images of the two journalists, they doctored them ... significantly. 

Joint Grady College-Greenville News Project

As some of you know, we did a Maymester multimedia journalism course that was a joint project with the Greenville (S.C.) News. The News reached out to us a year ago and has been offering a lot of informational support, particularly to our multimedia classes.

The managing editor there, Chris Weston, came to me in the fall and asked about doing a project looking at water issues across the Georgia-South Carolina border. In early May, ten students started learning how to shoot video, what to shoot and were then sent out with story ideas generated by the News' staff. After a week in the field, they came back in and learned how to edit.

Weston and I planned on having the students produce five stories. This morning, the paper posted nine that the students put together.

The News loaned us three staffers for parts of the project - business reporter David Dykes, who headed up the series; chief photographer Owen Riley, who spent a day shooting with the class in South Carolina; and Adam Wickliffe, the multimedia editor, who joined Riley in Athens for the final class to help polish the stories.

I need to thank Kent for letting me put the class on the books, Conrad for his invaluable assistance and the journalism department as a whole for their support. And, of course, all the folks up in Greenville who helped put this together.

The stories and videos are online now.

Nine of them, reported, shot and edited in three weeks.

Nothing like exceeding expectations.

Why You Need to Register Your Work

Photo Attorney Carolyn Wright tells the tale of a photographer who just won a $12 million settlement for copyright infringements.

Ahem.

Can I Shoot Here? – UPDATED

The Fox affiliate in Washington, D.C., has a piece on whether you can shoot photos in Union Station. Turns out, you can - but security doesn't know that and has been harassing tourists and pros of late.

Meanwhile, Bruce Schneier at The Guardian has a column on why photographers are considered threats by government agencies.

The 9/11 terrorists didn't photograph anything. Nor did the London transport bombers, the Madrid subway bombers, or the liquid bombers arrested in 2006. Timothy McVeigh didn't photograph the Oklahoma City Federal Building. The Unabomber didn't photograph anything; neither did shoe-bomber Richard Reid. Photographs aren't being found amongst the papers of Palestinian suicide bombers. The IRA wasn't known for its photography. Even those manufactured terrorist plots that the US government likes to talk about -- the Ft. Dix terrorists, the JFK airport bombers, the Miami 7, the Lackawanna 6 -- no photography.

Hit the link for his explanation.

______________________

UPDATE: Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton responds to the privatization of Union Station. Or, not.

The Long Train Ride Home

As most of you know, we just passed the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Robert Kennedy. CNN has posted a photo montage with narration by Magnum photographer Paul Fusco commenting on what he saw out the train windows.

NPR has an interview with Bill Eppridge, who made the infamous image of Kennedy lying on the floor, being held by a waiter.

"Did You Get the Shot?"

Every photojournalist will eventually come back to the newsroom with some tale of personal woe and pain from an assignment. And someone, somewhere, in that newsroom will ask if they got the shot. Never mind if a lens was smashed, a camera destroyed ... or if the shooter had been pierced by a javelin.

That guy deserves a raise.

"Pay More Attention"

That title is a bit of a play on what this post is about. In, ahem, January 2007, my colleague Tim Atherton launched a blog - Muse-ings. I noted its existence and made a note to follow it ... sigh, then never did. I stumbled across the note this morning and started poking at it.

I came across one recent post about Simon Robert's "We English" project and loved the last part of the post - a listing of notes the photographer wrote to himself. Check it out, I'm going to add that to my list of things to use in the classroom.

Cover Shots

Khoi Vinh has a marvelous post up talking about album cover artwork. If you read through the comments, an interesting idea is pushed out ... that newer records need to rely on bolder designs that are readable at a smaller scale. And not just because we've moved from albums to CDs, but that we've now moved down to that little square in the corner of iTunes.

I admit to still having a sizable record collection - the big ones with black vinyl inside. I'll even admit to having turned a few of my favorite album covers into home-made posters when I was younger, including The Del Fuegos' Boston, Mass. and Foreigner's Agent Provocateur. Why? They were clean and evocative of ... well, whatever I was feeling in 1986, I suppose.

(Plus, who else but Dan Zanes could pen a line like, "I stayed awake last week ...?")

Newly Minted Multimedia Journalists

Rusty Bailey, who's at the Rome (Ga.) News-Tribune this summer as a multimedia intern, sent along a link to his first solo video - and a spot news piece, to boot.

And Sara Guevara, in her first week on staff at the Gainesville (Ga.) Times shot a piece on a new business. But not just any new business - this is a tourist helicopter service.

Not bad for less than a week off campus ...

Wicked Awesome Primary Results Map

Damon Kiesow up at the Nashua Telegraph tweeted this a few moments ago: it's an interactive map of Indiana with county-by-county results from Tuesday's presidential primary.

How cool is that?

Make Your Own Documentary

PBS' NOVA program has done something stunning - they're releasing all of the raw video footage from their Car of the Future program. You can download it and re-edit the show.

Ever wanted to make a documentary about ecology and car culture? Here's your stock footage.

No commercial usage, but that's okay by me. For all of the multimedia students who spent the last several weeks fighting with Final Cut, are you ready to get back into it?

So many ideas that I have now ...

Community Building

Something I can't really talk about with any level of expertise (yet), but something I think we need to talk about: Internet communities.

My reason for being a journalist was always community based - in order to succeed as a democratic institution, I believe it is imperative that we understand our community. And that's where journalism comes in.

Steve Yelvington has a post up about how news organizations need to rethink their approach to the Internet and he goes into the way-back machine to pull thoughts from Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville's Democracy in America.

Which now has me thinking I need to read that (maybe again, I don't remember reading but it seems as if I should have) and that there may be a way of promoting the sense of community better. I'm not sure how (yet), but I'm working on it.

Family and Photojournalism

NPR has an interview with National Geographic's Annie Griffiths Belt where she talks about life on the road with her family. Includes a comment about one of her kids traveling to 13 countries before she was born.

Kael Alford on Campus - April 24 - ROOM CHANGE

Mark this on your calendar - photojournalist Kael Alford will be speaking at the Student Learning Center (room 248 - changed room) on Thursday, April 24 at 4:30 p.m. Her work from Iraq was featured in the Georgia Review magazine last year.

Now Available: My Dream Job

For years I joked the ultimate job for me was photo editor at the Wall Street Journal. Because, as you may know, they never ran photos. Saunter in to the daily news meeting and have an editor bark out section titles, then call, "PHOTO!"

And calmly respond, "Not today, boss, maybe tomorrow."

On Wednesday, the venerable WSJ (for years more gray than the Gray Lady) published ... on the front page ... photos.

Ahhh, Blogging and Sports Comes of Age

Former student Tom O'Connor forwarded along a New York Times story about sports organizations wrestling with the blogging world. Do they credential them? Do they limit their online "reporting?"

Saw the News, Bought the T-shirt

I am all for news organizations finding a way to stay financially viable. Mostly, I believe if they can remain relevant to their readers, they'll make it. (I know, overly simplistic, but that's the core for me - stay relevant.)

While poking around CNN.com today, I saw an extra little icon at the end of a couple of story headlines. I was used to seeing the video icon, telling me this was a video story instead of a text one. But the new icon looked like, well ... a t-shirt.

And it was.

Next to the following stories, you could click on a link and order a t-shirt with the headline printed on it:

• DUI gizmo might've been wrong for 2 years
• Principal sets up drug sting on student
• Prince drops copter in galpal's yard
• Weird fish leave sea, spawn on beach

We wonder why our readers don't turn to us? Maybe it's because we've given up hope on being news sites and are now entertainizing everything, trying to make it palatable.

I thought the "spotted" idea was bad ... now this.

There should be a rant right here about how JOURNALISTS need to take their news product back. How we need to fix this before a bunch of business-school drop-outs try to entertainize all that we do in a search for unrealistic profit margins, but if you're reading this, you've probably got your own rant going.

The Homicide Blog

Not much here in the way of photojournalism, but CNN.com has a story up on Jill Leovy who, for the last year, worked on the Los Angeles Times' Homicide Blog.

Street level reporting at its truest form, Leovy went and talked with families and friends of more than 800 homicide victims over the last year.

One for the Soon-To-Be-Graduates

Lisa Williams over at the Idea Lab has a post on the "10 Things Journalists Should Know About Surviving in a High-Tech Industry."

It took me a moment with thinking of "journalism" as a "high-tech industry," but it is. A lot of the insane things dot-commers were doing a decade ago we're doing now ... a decade late. Don't know how to code? Learn it on your own time, get yourself a better job. Don't know how to do an audio slide show? Learn it on your own time, get yourself a better job.

It's no longer good enough to be good at your current job, you need to be good at the next job, too, even before you get it.

Exhaustion

That's what I'm still feeling, but it's a good thing. This past weekend was our Third Annual UGA Photojournalism Weekend Workshop, this year based here in Athens.

Visiting editor Mike Roy, from the Westchester (N.Y.) Journal, with help from USA Today's Katye Martens and the Charleston (S.C.) Post and Courier's Sarah Bates, put together a video on the weekend's activities. (Click that link to see the video, some browsers are having trouble showing the whole screen in the blog.)

Over-Photoshopping

Mindy McAdams, Flash Goddess, wrote about a blog post by Carrie Niland, who I know but didn't know had a blog ...

Anyway, Carrie takes on an over-toned image by a former intern that recently appears in Photo District News. The comments are as good as the entry.

World Nomad Photo Competition

It says you can join a National Geographic photographer in Australia ...

Fine print is a little, well, odd ... seems you need to fly yourself there and they'll fly you back. Not sure on that, though.

Pulitzer Prizes

Announced today ...

For Spot Braking Photography, Reuters' Adrees Latif for his photo of wounded Japanese photographer Kenji Nagai in Myanmar.

For Feature Photography, Preston Gannaway of the Concord (N.H.) Monitor for photos of a family coping with a parent's terminal illness.

Brave New World

This will only be filed under my "Rants and Rambles" category, because that's all it is.

A student of mine, while working on a project for his history class, took some photos of a chicken processing plant. He stood on the side of the road, took photos of what was plainly visible ... and was then questioned by not just a local sheriff's deputy but by the FBI, as well.

Timing is everything - in his class this week, we're talking about ethics, copyright and the law.

Business Photos

The Reuters blog posted a nice collection of economic and business related photos. There are lots of shooters who hate getting a business assignment, I used to like them. Something different.

Of course, 75% of what I shot was sports which, believe it or not, gets tiring after a while.

Joe McNally on Junk Piles and Herschel Walker

Over on Joe McNally's blog, he talks about a workshop he was teaching and, at the tail end of it, is a little bit about shooting covers for national magazines, this one on UGA's own Herschel Walker.

Probably of more interest locally than non-locally ...

Thinking of Journalism Grad School?

Then you must read Mindy McAdams's post on it first.

Some semi-random thoughts ...

Communication theory is really lost on those who haven't yet experienced a lot of communication ... be sure you love journalism before committing more time and money into learning about it ... most 30-year veteran copy editors knows more about journalism than anybody I've ever taken a class from ... real life is way cooler than academic life.

Guests

Billy Weeks, director of graphics and photography at the Chattanooga Times Free Press, joined the Multimedia Journalism class this week to talk about what they're doing and where this is all heading.

He got the "five things all graduating journalists should know" question and answered thusly:

1. Report — Journalism is all about connecting with subjects, the media doesn't matter. Young students are afraid to ask questions — don't be.
2. Be able to handle audio
3. Be able to handle still photos, especially strobes
4. Be able to handle video
5. Team Work — Share ideas, communicate with your co-workers

UGAzine Looking for Photo Stories

Passing along ...

Each semester, ugazine publishes a two-page, color Photo Essay for the
department "In A Thousand Words." All submissions will be reviewed by our
Photo Editor, Editor-In-Chief and Managing Editor. If your work is selected for
publication, then you'll be asked to submit a brief (2-3 sentence) summary
paragraph of the story to accompany the photos and captions.
To submit your work, please burn 8-10 high resolution (minimum 300 DPI) JPEG
images with the captions included in the photo information area to a CD or
DVD. Please write in Sharpie on the CD your name, e-mail address and cell
phone number. Also, print out a word document with all your contact
information and the photo numbers with their corresponding captions. Attach
the CD to the sheet of paper and place in the ugazine box in Sophie Barnes'
office (aside Kent Middleton's office) by the last day of spring classes.
If you have any questions, please e-mail ugazine@gmail.com.
Thanks for your submission.

Flip Ultra vs. Canon HD

David Pogue at the New York Times pointed this out ... Kirk Mastin, from the University of Washington, shot a story on a Canon high definition camera and a Flip Ultra, then edited them exactly the same way in Final Cut Pro ... and the results are, well, surprising ...

It is not the gear, folks. It is the story.

This American Life and the Ethics of Journalism

I neither watch nor listen enough to Ira Glass' This American Life, and I really need to. Take a look at this four minute video illustrating one of the stories they did.

We'll be talking about ethics in the intro classes next week, this will come up. Why does the camera (or the pen and paper) become a barrier to our humanity? Should it?

(Thanks to Multimedia Shooter for the link, we're glad to have you back.)

Society of Professional Journalists' Regional Award Winners

Hmmm ... let's see ... there are 14 teaching members of the journalism faculty here, one of whom teaches photojournalism. At the Society of Professional Journalists' regional award ceremony, the Red & Black won 16 awards this year (scroll down to the second editorial) ... seven of them for photography.

Hmmm ...

Congrats go to:

• Richard Hamm - first place in Sports Photography
• Josh D. Weiss - first place in Photo Illustration, second place in Feature Photography, second place in Sports Photography
• Kelly Wegel - second place in General News Photography
• Danielle Hutlas - third place in Breaking News Photography
• The Red & Black staff - third place in Feature Photography

Also heard this weekend that Josh D. Weiss won in the sports photo category at the Southern Short Course in News Photography.

Nice work, guys.

NPPA Convergence 08

Info is up on the National Press Photographers Association's Convergence 08 conference. Held in Louisville, Ky., at the end of May, this is a total immersion program - four days of hands-on learning.

Adobe Photoshop Goes ... Mainframe?

There's a word you don't here much anymore. Mainframe. It dates back to the time when all computing was done on a centralized machine and you fed information into it via either punch cards or "dumb terminals."

The 1980s saw the explosion of the desktop computer and, since then, every 18 months computing power has doubled for the same cost. (A variation on Moore's Law.) Heck, your cell phone probably has more memory and computing power than my first computer (which was, for the record, a Commodore 128 with the 300 baud modem, 80 character monitor and an external 5.25 inch disk drive).

Now, we do all of our processing on our own machines - everything from word processing and spread sheets to video and photo editing. Will we continue to?

That's a big question. Google Docs has moved two of those activities online. (Haven't played with it? If you're in any sort of organization that does collaborative works, it's a great tool. And free.) We now store photos online, too.

And, now, Adobe has introduced Photoshop Express - an online version of Photoshop. You upload your photos to their server, send a series of editing commands and it pushes the edited image back to your screen.

Which is kind of like, oh, I don't know ... a mainframe computer?

THIS is TOO COOL

Here's the scene: You're a wire shooter, assigned to cover the European Swimming Championships. There's a guy, Alain Bernard of France, who may set a record. So you know you're concentrating on him. Of course, every other wire and agency photographer is going to focus in on this guy, how do you do it differently?

Well, shoot it from underwater, of course. It's been done that way for years. But ... then he sets the world record in the 100 meter freestyle. If you're shooting from underwater, on a remote control ... how do you get your photos out faster? Can you afford to wait until the end of the meet, then dive down to fetch your camera?

Read all about how Wolfgang Rattay set up not just an underwater camera, but a remote controlled underwater rig that wirelessly transmitted the photo to his laptop over on the Reuters photo blog.

Geek to the max, but ... but ... four minutes after setting the record, he had the photo on the wire. FOUR MINUTES.

Chip Simons, Then and Now

In the 1980s, I wasn't much of a studio/fashion/commercial kind of photographer. I was a journalist, I looked up to people like Stan Grosfeld, Susan Meiselas and Michel DuCille and didn't think much about the rest of the photography world.

Of course, there were a few names we all knew - Mark Seliger, Annie Leibovitz and Chip Simons were high on the list. Amazing portrait and conceptual photographers, I wondered where that energy came from.

It's been years since I thought about Simons. I had always liked his bold color, his use of gelled strobes mixed with ambient light ... really offbeat stuff. Today, over on Rob Haggert's blog, I learned a little about why I hadn't thought about him - he sort of disappeared into the west.

Here's hoping he makes a comeback, the world needs more magenta gels.

When Shoots Go Wrong

If you're freelancing, it pays to have insurance. So says John Harrington at Photo Business News and, well, anyone else who's thinking ...

Why? Because things go wrong. In this example, it's a model who gets injured by a lion. (No gore, a lot of bruising, though.) There are lots of stories of equipment getting damaged out there, but this could have been a really tragic situation.

What Does a Multimedia Package Need?

Mindy McAdams, Flash Goddess, has the answers on her blog now, based on reviewing projects from masters students.

Al on Colleges Covering College Basketball

The Poynter Institute's Al Tomkins put up a piece linking to how college newspapers are covering the NCAA tournaments. A little late for us here, but thinking about how to do this as future events unfold is a good idea. Say, the gymnastics championships ...

(And if you're not reading Al's Morning Meeting, what are you doing with your life?)

Photoshop Disasters

Really, a blog totally devoted to Photoshop mistakes. I never get enough of these .... 

Bearing Witness: Five Years of the Iraq War

Reuters has put together a multimedia package looking at the first five years of the war in Iraq. The introduction piece is a nice summation of what Reuters has been doing to cover the war, specifically talking about using local journalists as opposed to parachuting in folks. (The intro runs just under five minutes, watch your audio - the video clips are jarring.)

We Scooped the New York Times

Tech writer David Pogue just wrote a review of the Flip Ultra, something done here back in November.

Jeez, no wonder the Times is in trouble ... though Pogue does point out that the Flip has captured, ahem, 13% of the video camera market. Which is, well, stunning.

New (to me) Blog: A Photo Editor

Just learned of this (from the rejuvenated MultimediaShooter.com site): Rob Haggert, former photo editor at Men's Journal and Outside Magazine, is blogging about life at the other end of the phone.

I've only read a few entries, but I'm feeding it into my NetVibes account. I'm quoting too much here, but under an entry titled "Magazines Behaving Badly" (about slow payments) he tells this tale:

One day I got a call from Mary Ellen Mark who’d recently shot a feature story for us. I was so proud that I’d landed her to shoot for the magazine and was so intimidated when I had spoken with her about the assignment and then when she’d called me from location to discuss the images she was getting and in general giving me an update on what was happening. Well, M.E.M. was not calling to tell me what a fabulous Photo Editor I was. No, she was calling to rip me a new one from head to toe because it had been over 90 days since she’d turned in a bill and had yet to receive payment and Christmas had passed and all those expenses we’d owed her would have come in handy. So, I sat there on the other end of the phone for a good 15 minutes possibly half an hour as Mary Ellen Mark shredded me into tiny little pieces and then stomped up and down on the pile of pieces and then loaded them into a cannon with a couple pounds of gunpowder and shot them out so they fell from the sky like confetti.

Having been a director of photography who had to take the calls about missing checks, I felt that pain. But never from a Mary Ellen Mark. (The rest of you, though - I felt that just as much.)

"10 Tips for Becoming a Wired Journalist"

The Student Newspaper Survival Blog has a post on 10 things you must know. Go read it, it should sound familiar by now. If it doesn't, read it again. And memorize it.

VII Seminar

FYI ...

Come Celebrate VII Turning 7


VII SEMINAR in DUMBO

Dates: May 16th, 17th & 18th, 2008
Location: Klitgord Auditorium-New York City Technical College
Address: 285 Jay Street (in downtown Brooklyn), New York 11201


This expanded 3 day seminar will include the following:
VII Photographer presentations including their latest work along with newest members, Marcus Bleasdale and Franco Pagetti.
VII Network Photographer Presentations.
Special guest presentation by Simon Norfolk
Panel discussions on “Photojournalism Within The Context of Contemporary Photography”
Breaking product news by our sponsors including, Canon U.S.A.
Book Signings by VII Photographers and special guests.
Exclusive VII Seminar evening events in the new VII DUMBO space on 28 Jay Street

General admission - $50

PORTFOLIO REVIEWS (includes reviews by two VII Photographers) - $200

VII Seminar Site at: http://viiphoto.com/event.html

Athens Photo Night - The Return

A small tradition from the past is returning to Athens Tuesday, March 18 - Photo Night. It's a gathering of pixel pushers, something I heartily endorse. (The gathering, not the beating up of pixels.)

Skedded for 6:30 p.m. at Copper Creek (140 East Washington Street). Open to current and past students, working photojournalists and those who just wish to hang around with them. (While I won't be there, there'd better be darts. It is not an official Photo Night until someone starts the Cricket taunting.)

Job Opening

Those soon to depart Athens looking for photo work, drop me a note - one of our alums has an opening at her paper. (Don't want to post it all here to keep her boss form being spammed.)

Photo Booths

The New York Times has a story and video about photo booths and their transition from chemical to digital. Interesting and entertaining.

Bad Photo Deals

There are some things that just make me ill. Over on a Flickr forum, Boston Magazine - the highly profitable magazine that's aimed at affluent readers - is claiming they're too poor to hire a photographer, but will give credit to whoever they rip-off ...

Thankfully, the comments are taking them to task, but I bet they'll get their free photos. Photographers keep forgetting that what they make has a value beyond a credit line.

Baseball Shooter

ESPN has a nice piece up on Gregg Forwerck who shoots for Topps baseball cards. Not very technical, but a nice profile.

Pictures of the Year International Award Winners

They've announced who's won, but haven't posted the photos yet. Keep checking, this, and the National Press Photographers Association's Best of Photojournalism competition, are always great resources for studying where our industry is.

An Air Disappears into Thin Air

Tech writer Steven Levy over at Newsweek has, ahem, lost his computer - a loaner MacBook Air from Apple.

And that's why I didn't buy one ... plus, it really wouldn't work for me. Well, it would, but, you know, not without some other things ... like a Mac Pro for home.

Odd Photography

Okay, for you slightly-off photographers, be wary of traveling to London.

(My generation's excuse for odd behavior was sniffing the Dektol. What is yours?)

We've Arrived! (UPDATED!!)

If you measure your success by whether people are trying to steal your content, at least. Intrepid internet searcher and current student Rusty Bailey stumbled across another Blogger.com-hosted blog that has been lifting content from this blog and posting it on their own site, surrounded by advertising.

I've begun the notification process to have it taken down, but if you look up at the top and don't see "ugapj.blogspot.com" as the URL - you're not reading the original. And if it's your ad on the side, then, well, you're contributing to a copyright infringer.

(We'll know shortly whether this is an active lift, meaning someone's copying-and-pasting, or if it's automated. Wouldn't it be funny if they posted this note and left in the ugapj.blogpost.com reference?)

(UPDATE: They did it! They posted the entry that says they are stealing content!)

(Sorry, I find that funny. I wonder what else I can feed into their display ...)

Guests

I try to bring as many guests into my classroom as possible. For starters, this is an excellent way to decrease the amount of time I need to prepare for any given class ... I kid, of course.

In reality, I bring folks in to offer up different perspectives, to help flush out something that I've discussed or to add new knowledge that I don't have to share. The last few folks have all been asked the same question towards the end of their discussions, and I'm going to start sharing those answers with all of you because today's was just simply amazing.

Mandrallius Robinson from the Greenville (S.C.) News was with my Multimedia Journalism class this afternoon. Robinson, a six-year veteran of the News, was "volunteered" last spring to go through Gannett's video training. He has quickly become a rising star, putting together two sports "shows" every week for the paper.

The question: What five things must every newly-graduated journalist know?

1. Have an open mind
2. Precision - be careful in your choice of words, avoid clichés
3. Pay attention to co-workers - they can help
4. Find a way to keep your drive
5. Journalism is a service

An excellent list, I thought.

5th Annual Gordon Parks Celebration of Culture & Diversity

Legendary photojournalist Gordon Parks's is remembered through a competition and a workshop in Fort Scott, Kansas, each year. If you're headed towards Kansas in October, may be worth checking out.

Blog Note

Small note here - that last post, on trapezoid cropping, was the 300th post on the UGA Photojournalism blog. Which also happened to celebrate its first birthday on Thursday, February 28.

Strange Crops

I have been reading newspapers for 30 years now, on and off. I started with the comics, then moved to news and features. And I read the sports pages, but I admit to not being a huge sports fan.

I've worked for small news papers and mid-sized newspapers. I've shot photos, edited photos and done some page layout. Wrote a story or two, too.

I even got to witness the Society for Newspaper Design do its annual judging, which was very cool.

But I've never seen a page design - in a daily newspaper - quite like this.

A trapezoidal crop? A triangular ad?

John Kao on Innovation

This is SO WORTH an hour of your day - Robert Scoble interviewing John Kao about innovation. In fact, I may require every one of my students watch this. And suggest it be played at the Northern Short Course and the Southern Short Course.

Some quotes I pulled out of it:

People sometimes confuse creativity and innovation.

On General Motors and Detroit in general:

Change is hard. You have to drop a bomb on the complacency and mainstream culture of an established organization or you’re not going to get change. You cannot incrementally fix that kind of a problem ... They mistake cool marketing and cool concepts for genuine change

Without visionary leadership and a new narrative you’ve got nothing. But even then it’s dicey. It’s a constant blocking and tacking, it’s like fighting entropy, you have to keep doing it.

And my favorite:

We always have this invitation to invent the future we want.