Weekend Workshop Round Table Talks

As part of this year’s Photojournalism Weekend Workshop, we’re going to have a few informal round-table discussions on issues the editors and our students are wrestling with. The schedule is below and all of these will be held in the Photojournalism Lab (room 130 of Grady College).

If you’re around and want to sit in, you’re more than welcome to join us. Each of these will run about 30 minutes.

If you’re coming to the Saturday or Sunday talks, I’ll be at the first floor, south west corner door about 10 minutes prior to the start to let folks in. (That’s the door closest to Tate Center with the automatic opener on it.)

Friday, 1 p.m. - Using "Social Media" to Build Communities - How do sites like Facebook affect our readership? How can we take advantage of those communities? Do we need to draw readers to our sites or do we go to where the readers are?

Friday, 4 p.m. - Communities Without Borders - How do you make coverage decisions when geography isn't as strong of a defining value? Do we need to redefine "community journalism?"

Saturday, 1 p.m. - Back Pack Journalism - It’s spreading, does it work? Can it work? Do concerns about quality and depth trump the immediacy of it?

Saturday, 4 p.m. - The Role of Video - How important is this? Do we use it because we have it or do we use it when it works best?

Sunday, 10 a.m. - How to Survive - It has been a brutal year in the journalism realm, so how do students keep hope alive? Or should they?

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.)

"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 ...

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.

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.

"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.  

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 ...

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 Speed of News

I spent time working for the wires (Associated Press and Agence France-Presse) and did enough newspaper night coverage to have pushed deadlines as much as the next guy. I remember waiting for a lower-office candidate to concede one night in Providence, R.I., so we could get the governor to come out and celebrate his win.

That little twerp, down by 10 or 15 points, refused to accept he wasn't going to be elected to Chief Bottle Washer or some such thing. Shooting for the AP, I had an editor in New York paging me every 10 minutes asking where the photos were ... she actually asked me why I couldn't make the governor appear.

Anyway, once my image was on film, I had to drive across town to my bureau to soup, edit and transmit. It was only a five minute drive and it would take about 12 minutes (cutting some corners) to have the film ready to scan (chemistry was mixed and cooking hours earlier in preparation). Another 10 minutes to scan, caption and send and I was done for the night. Less than 30 minutes from appearance on stage to bouncing off the satellite, I thought that was pretty good.

(We built a lot of darkrooms on-site, too, but not that night.)

Fast-forward eight years to November 2002. I'm photo editor of the Utica, N.Y., paper and have all hands out for election night. Me, I'm an hour or so outside of the city, waiting for a city councilor to make his victory appearance at his brother's bar. My deadline is 11:15 p.m.

It's clear he's taking the seat early, but he's not there. Nine p.m., 10 p.m., 10:30 p.m. I find his brother to get an update. "He'll be here when he's ready." Uh-huh.

He shows up at - honest to God - 11:05. Why? Television is live ...

He gets out of the car in front of the bar. Five frames of that. He hugs mom, four frames of that and I run to the parking lot. I have a laptop sitting on the front seat of my truck. Card in one side, cellphone plugged to the other ... seven minutes later, I have a photo on my designer's screen.

I was The Man.

John Harrington put together a video of interviews from Sen. John McCain's Potomac Primary celebration. I knew about Reuters' remote editing system (though I've never seen it in action), but J. Scott Applewhite's statement shocked me: TWO MINUTES from appearance to being on the Associated Press' wire ... and that's working by himself.

Preparation is everything, even now.

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.

Twenty Days, Twenty Thousand Photos

Turned into one video by the Toronto Star's Lucas Oleniuk.

You can question its journalistic objectivity, I suppose, but ... wow.

"The Ninth Floor"

MediaStorm has posted an audio slide show by Jessica Dimmock looking at the lives of heroin addicts who used to live in a ninth floor apartment in New York City.

Access is what this is all about - Dimmock has manages to make her subjects so comfortable with her presence that she is there for everything. (And, I will warn you, some of it is graphic and may not be appropriate for work or younger people.)

Worth the 13 minutes to watch.

Offline for a Few Days

I'll be at the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar for the next two days. If something big happens, I'm sure you'll find out about it.

Full report when I return.

"A New Dawn"

David Stephenson's two year coverage of a woman going through drug court is up on the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader's web site. Broken into several chapters, it follows her through the courts and treatment programs and ends up ... close to where she started.

BBQ & Multimedia ...

... does it get better than that?

Mark Dolan, a former faculty member at my old school, has been on the road for two years now telling the story of barbecue in America through his BBQ Pilgrim web site. The collection of audio slideshows is developing into a nice catalog of work.

Worth checking out, but you'll be hungry when you're done ...

The Mundane Becomes Cool

One of the things I love about newspapers moving into new storytelling modes is the ability to make a seemingly mundane thing more interesting. Had I ever told my staff to go to a football game and cover the chain gang - the volunteers who move the first down markers around - they would have had a fit.

But the Portland (Maine) Press Herald has a series looking at high school football called "Beyond the Scoreboard." Check out the chain gang story, has some severe audio problems but the concept is really nice.