Gear Guides

We're getting close to that time of the year, the time when many of my students will start fretting about graduating. And it's not so much the Becoming a Real Person Dilemma as it is what do I need to buy?

I say it often - we do a great thing here at UGA in providing gear to our students. It completely eliminates an economic barrier to taking the classes and finding your passion. But it also means the students don't have to buy anything or start building their kits. So when their last class ends and they have to hand back the kit, they go into a bit of withdrawal. Or, more accurately, they go into shock over what it costs to build their own.

David McIntyre over at Black Star Rising has a short post on the basic gear a freelancer needs and it's a great starting point for a discussion that will go on for a few weeks here.

UGA PJ Alumni on Verve Photo

Kendrick Brinson, a 2005 UGA PJ alumni, is the current featured photographer on Verve Photo's New Breed of Documentary Photographers project.

Networking to Survive

Over on BlogHer, Kim Pearson has a piece up on, "Survival Tips for Journalists in the New News Economy." Two of her main ideas - that everyone is now a potential entrepreneur and that networking matters - are things students can easily latch on to and do something about.

"Sex, Lies and Photoshop"

Jesse Epstein has an opinion piece - done as a video - on the New York Times site about, "Sex, Lies and Photoshop." It comes from a proposed law in France that would require magazines to delineate how much retouching has been done on the photos. Not overly deep, but worth five minutes of your day.

Hey Dave, How's the Workshop Going?

Administrivia

File this under ego ... today marks the second anniversary of the UGA PJ blog. While there was one experimental post in February, on March 5, 2007, the first two real posts went online - a look at the Faces of Rochester and another on low angle sports photography.

There won't be a cake, but a simple nod to surviving for two years would be appropriate.

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?