17th annual Southwestern Photojournalism Conference

FYI ...

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is excited to host the 17th annual Southwestern Photojournalism Conference, Feb. 27 - March 1, 2009. The conference, supported by Christians in Photojournalism, benefits those who believe photojournalism is a calling and the act of bearing witness is essential. This year's speakers include Scott Strazzante, staff photographer for the Chicago Tribune; Bill Fortney of Nikon Professional Services; and Bob Carey, NPPA President and professor at Gardner-Webb University; as well as other experts in the field of photojournalism.

Register by January 31, 2009, for a $40 discount. Limited guest rooms are available at Southwestern's Riley Center (www.swbts.edu/RileyCenter), so make your reservations now. Portions of this year's event are sponsored by Canon, Nikon, and Chick-fil-A. Nikon Professional Services will be on site providing camera clean and checks. Additional conference information regarding registration, speakers and conference news, can be found at www.swpjc.org. We look forward to seeing you there.

New View of the Inauguration

It may seem simple, but it means a lot to be able to get something different from a Presidential Inauguration. Chuck Kennedy managed to do it, with a low and wide remote shot from Tuesday's event.

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. 

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.

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.

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 ...)

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.  

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

Speaker: Dennis Dimick, Thursday, Jan. 31

Dennis Dimick, executive editor at National Geographic, will be in the photo lab from 11 a.m. to 12 noon on Thursday, talking about environmental coverage. All are welcome. 

This precedes his Charter lecture in the afternoon.

"The Capa Cache"

This is amazing ... 70-year-old negatives, long since thought lost, from Robert Capa have turned up in Mexico, according to a New York Times article.

Bernie Boston, 74

Bernie Boston has passed.

Boston was the D.C. photo chief for the L.A. Times when I met him in 1992. Several of you have heard the story of that very uncomfortable meeting. He was as kind and gracious as any one could ever be, yet I was scared to death he was about to sue me ...

I wish I'd gotten to know him better.

David Burnett has a nice post about him today.

Mike Johnston on Lens Sharpness

Over at The Online Photographer, Michael Johnston has a piece up on lens sharpness - how sharp is sharp enough? Does lens resolution affect the apparent sharpness of an image as much as we think?

Geeky, in an old school kind of way.

Every photographer develops, over time, a favorite lens. One that does something special that they can capitalize on. For me, my Canadian-built 35 mm f/2.0 Summicron that I bought with my first Leica (an M4-p) was one of them. My manual focus Nikkor 24 mm f/2.8 was another - I just worked well with that lens. (Bought, used, in 1989, I was still using it in August of 2007 for this photo.)

You Can Fool Some of the People All of the Time ...

So, Leica is well known for special edition cameras that commemorate all kinds of things (such as the M6J, the MP Hermés or the Royal Wedding M6), but this is just silly ... for $180, you can get a White Stripes Special Edition Holga or Diana camera (turn down your volume before clicking).

Current price of a Holga online: about $20.

Act Now! Only 3,000 examples have been made!

Our Consitutional Responsibility

Greg Mironchuk, an old friend and a damned fine photojournalist, sent the following to the National Press Photographers Association's discussion list. I'm reposting it with his permission because, every now and then, we need to be reminded of why we are journalists ...

Newspapers are an integral part of the "System Of Checks And Balances," here in the United States.

The New York Times sees The First Amendment to The Constitution of The United States as a license to print and sell Tee Shirts, with images from NFL and MLB games on them, for profit, in a blurring of the line between "Commercial" and "Editorial" ... the folks who wrote the Constitution saw The First Amendment as a way to keep The Gov't from having a monopoly on Information.

I don't have to convince anyone that ... nationally ... The U.S. Gov't has exercised this monopoly quite forcefully, in this era of Newspapers' Decline.

But ... it's everywhere.

In the town where I live, there is a phony "Budget Crisis" going on, in an effort to bully the town's taxpayers into approving a higher property tax rate than Massachusetts requires, by law ... they've closed the Library, cut Firemen's hours, and curtailed gym/music/art and many Special Ed programs in the schools.

The Bozos at Town Hall (my apologies to Bozos, everywhere, for comparing you to our Town Gov't ...) would have been beat up one side of the road, and down the other, if there was a real newspaper here ... but there isn't.

All three alleged/purported 'papers which regularly print "news" about our town (including Boston's biggest Metro Daily) print verbatim press releases from the town ... and photographs, only when someone calls up, with a "Photo Op."

The demise of the Newspaper Business has negatively affected the Balance of Responsibility in every level of Gov't. Nobody in my town is interested in policing the Town Gov't, or anyone who provides services for the town ... including police, fire, and schools.

Only a real, viable, newspaper can hold feet to fires ... can identify graft, malfeasance, and criminality ... and can provide a forum with which Citizens can intelligently exercise their Franchise, at the ballot box.

To paraphrase a quote from everyone's favorite movie ... the problems of Photojournalists, as a result of the demise of newspapers, don't amount to a hill of beans ... when compared to the problems that everyone has when newspapers have abdicated their Constitutional Responsibility, whilst hiding behind their Constitutional Protections.

Stop Talking About Gear

And start thinking about how to use it better. Ken Rockwell, who has a ton of information on his site about cameras and lenses, wrote a diatribe a while back about why the camera you use doesn't matter. Some of his analogies are weak, but this one always rings true:

We all know how to play the piano: you just press the keys and step on the pedals now and then. The ability to play it, much less the ability to stir emotion in those who hear your playing, is an entirely different matter. Don't presume the most expensive gear is the best. Having too much camera equipment is the best way to get the worst photos.

Nothing has prompted this, but I had bookmarked the page and reread it this morning. Well, maybe that's not true ... I stumbled across a photo of a Makina 67 - a camera I'd never heard of - and have been somewhat fascinated by them for the last few days. If only I had that camera I could do ... what?

I can't answer that. I mean, I have an answer in my head, and maybe I could make a different kind of photo that the average reader would be able to identify. But probably not. (And since they're selling for $1500+ on ebay, I'm not buying one.)

Likewise, when I started shooting football this year I hauled out my 300 mm f/2.8 manual focus lens and 1.4x teleconverter. I bought both of those - used - in 1993. Before every game, my wife listens to me fret about how I really should spend the money and get a newer 300, an AF-S Type II and a new converter. And as I edit, I see where I missed on the focus.

Now, there is a legitimate reason to replace the lens - the helicoids are worn and the focus is a little sloppy at some points. But, you know, my clients aren't complaining. I am, but they aren't.

Would the pictures be better? Hmmm ... maybe there would be a higher percentage of sharper images, but the moments are the same.

Yes, sports is different - shooting Moonrise, Ansel Adams probably had a little more time then I did to catch a flying Ole Miss defender, so that newer lens maybe - maybe - would have made a difference.

Well, now I'm rambling. The idea is the camera doesn't matter as much as any of us think it does. I crave a Leica M8. The Makina 67 looks really sweet. And that new 300 probably would help me make better images. But it's not the lens or camera, it's the eye and brain - exercise those more and your photos will get better.