News University

So, a lot of us are thinking about internships, about jobs and trying not to starve while doing something we love. I came across a website in my public affairs reporting class that could help us say 'yes' when it comes to the dreaded video/audio/multimedia skills question. It's called News University, and it offers free (and some paid) classes on writing, editing, design, and multimedia skills. Check it out; see if it helps.

Good luck on portfolios!

Lab Hours for the End of the Semester

Lab Hours:

Monday, December 8 - 3:30-6:30
Tuesday, December 9 - 9-5
Wednesday, December 10 - 9-5
Thursday, December 11 - 9-5
Friday, December 12 - 9-5 (3710 deadline)

Equipment must be turned in with your portfolio.

A Climate for LIfe

For those of us who salivate over the prospect of working for National Geographic, the International League of Conservation Photographers just published "A Climate for Life," which focuses on the preservation of arctic, fores/rain forest ecosystems. The animal and environmental photography is amazing--there's a particularly adorable photo of a seal, which I'll note especially for Mark.

The piece is rather long, but for those environmentalists among us, it's really interesting. Regardless, conservation is a really important issue, an issue that's just beginning to get the full attention it deserves.

Check out the ILCP's website too. It's got great photos!

Vincent Laforet

My attention was brought to a blog of Vincent Laforet, an advertising and editorial photographer based in NY. It's an interesting blog on its own, but he also lists other photography blogs and websites he visits regularly. Also, on his website is a short film photographed with the Canon EOS 5D MKII.

I meant to add that this article by Laforet, which was also the inspiration for his blog, is very interesting about the future of the media industry.

Stop Pan and Blur: Advanced Style!

I know we thought we all left this behind in intro (minus the few of you who nailed it at the Petit le Mans!) but these are AMAZING. Check these out and get inspired.

Incredible gallery

When I was doing my Day in the Life, I asked the photographer about some of the people who inspire them or they admire, and among other names he brought out a handmade, handprinted leather book that he said was one of his prize possessions. After looking through it, I can see why.



I don't know whether to call it documentary, or environmental portraits, or whatever you like, but suffice to say the images are incredible. The pictures are taken by Gregory Colbert of Canada, and are part of a large-scale work titled "Ashes and Snow," contained in a moving, "nomadic" exhibition and comprising photos, writings, and three films -- the main film of which has been narrated by big names (Laurence Fishburne, Ken Watanabe, and others) and translated into several languages. He travelled all over Asia, Africa, and Antarctica to witness the native people interacting with the animals there -- these are must-see photos; this is just one of so many to choose from.

To see the whole series, go to www.ashesandsnow.com.

Inspiration: Conceptual Portraits

(By Brooke Hunyady, found at her website http://www.brookehunyady.com/)

In case you all don't have enough to think about, forget the big project due Tuesday and the rest of your classes, (and the craziness of graduating a month from Tuesday, if you're me!), let's all think about our portraits.

Here, my friends, is inspiration if you need it. Portfolio>Conceptual.

Enjoy!

Another Look at "Photojournalist for a Day"

Out of curiousity, I googled the name of our next project to see what popped up. Looking for inspiration, I guess.

I came across this, which isn't at all what we did for our projects, but is interesting none the less.

Bearing Witness

For a long time, I thought the reason that I wanted to be in newspapers was to tell the story of war, to work with the troops doing embedded journalism. I have friends who served and are still serving in Iraq, so their stories really touched me. Now, I don't know if I could do it.

Reuters put together a multimedia piece called Bearing Witness: Five Years of the Iraq War. The images are so powerful, so raw...and some of it isn't easy to watch. The piece gives an overview of what the journalists covering the war have seen and will continue to see. But what I really liked about it were the profile pieces, which fearful in-depth interviews with reporters and photographers who have been covering the war. Wow.

One of the most disturbing images for me was of a camera abandoned on the ground after an explosion. Why? Whoever had it uses our 70-200 lens.

The Big Picture.....

has become one of my favorite blogs recently and I enjoy so much looking at the amazing photos posted here.  I came across these photos and thought that they were appropriate since yesterday was Veteran's Day.  I especially found them intriguing since my older brother is currently serving in Afghanistan.  Check them out...the desert has never looked so beautiful (to me anyways). 

so this is depressing

Paper Cuts: layoffs and buyouts at U.S. newspapers

Executive Portraits

I've been thinking a lot lately about shooting executive portraits. I'm reshooting mine on Monday, and decided to use good ole Google for some ideas. I flipped through the images for awhile and didn't really find anything that held my attention. I guess that's my difficulty with this type of image: where's the artistry?

Anyway, I found (another) time lapse video of an executive portrait photographer, David Tejada. He shot 9 executive portraits with the same set up. It's a nice way to lose 4-5 minutes of your time, but it makes me wonder how much of the photographer actually goes in to it. Any thoughts?

Intended Consequences

So, I absolutely love MediaStorm. My favorites thus far: Evidence of My Existence, which Mark talked about way back when, and Ivory Wars. Oh, and for the Radiohead fans among us, there's a great video to "Creep."

I was totally blown away by their last post, "Intended Consequences." It's about the women who survived the Rwandan genocide and had children from rape. Sex has been used as a weapon for a long time, but I don't think that I've ever heard a story that captured the emotions so well.

Seriously, watch it. Watch the individual stories. Then, watch the photographer talking about his reactions and the process of getting the interviews.

Torgovnik, the photographer, raises an interesting question. He says that all photographers are activists. They have to be.

What do you think?

Fail Faster

This article on "How to Fail as a Photojournalist" is really interesting for those of you who are looking to succeed in photojournalism. Allen Murabayashi wrote this as how the advice we usually hear can be turned around in order to make money, in his opinion. 

ELECTION WOOHOO

Who are the people of America? What are we thinking? What makes us angry and frustrated? What gives us hope? Are some of us really all blue and some all red? Or are we mostly shades of purple? What is the American Dream today?

From http://insight.magnumphotos.com, an explanation of a project called Insight America. More:

InSight America is an innovative documentary project that aims to explore these questions on the eve of one of the most important elections in American history. Calling on the talents of some of the world’s most respected photojournalists, using the Web to update their observations daily, InSight America is a collage of personal investigations and reflections that attempts to capture the things preoccupying Americans during the weeks leading to Election Day.

In honor of Halloween...

I know it is a week early, but seriously Halloween is my absolute favorite. Check out these clowns.

More costumes..

Happy Halloween. I get a little excited.

081020: day before deadline

"Oh hey what's up. Yeah I'm Glenn, I'm just chillin w my shades. Hey Danielle you're doing Housing Rocks the Vote too? I know, Tate plaza sucks so bad."

"Hello Amanda, come sit on this bench and commiserate with us because nothing is happening. In fact I think they're packing up those tables over there."

"Greetings Beth, I love your shirt but please go away and don't shoot this event because Mark will be pissed when he sees like 7 sets of the same pix!!!!"

Aaaand Frannie!!

Polling Place Photo Project

The NY Times is gettin' on the ball with campaign photo stories... only this one is of a different sort. Here's what the site says of their project:

The Polling Place Photo Project is a nationwide experiment in citizen journalism that encourages voters to capture, post and share photographs of this year’s primaries, caucuses and general election. By documenting local voting experiences, participants can contribute to an archive of photographs that captures the richness and complexity of voting in America.

Check it out, it's pretty interesting! http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Berlin Festival of Lights

I want to travel to Berlin before the Festival of Lights ends! These photos are beautiful and I want to see the city lit up in person!   Does anyone want to join me?

His McCain, Her Obama

I ironically stumbled across this after our brainstorming in class today. It's a video on the StL Dispatch site about a couple: he's for McCain, she's for Obama, and each put out a candidate sign in their yard. It gets a little cheesy, but overall it's interesting how they told the story and just focused strictly on this couple. This is for you Glenn.