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.