Visual Journalism

Steve Fox up at the University of Massachusetts has a post up about why students need to be blogging. You need to read it, even if you’re not a student.

Why? Let me quote …

… students should blog because it allows you to practice your writing and your multimedia skills. And, like anything, the more you practice, the better you get. In the process, you are creating a body of work that you can show those looking to hire you for an internship or a job. Remember, your blog is part of your digital footprint. Take it seriously.

I try to blog something every day, here it is what’s called link aggregation, but elsewhere I try to create content. My goal for this academic year is to create more. Harass me if i don’t.

My colleague, Prof. Barry Hollander, was walking around with a sheet of these journalism warning labels from Tom Scott this week. Very entertaining stuff, but it got me thinking, do we need a set for photos?

Time to put your thinking caps on and create a few. My contributions:

• Warning: This brilliant photo is a total fluke. It’s the only sharp image I shot this week.
• Warning: We found this image on the web, we have no way of knowing if it is real. Also, we don’t have permission to use it, so don’t tell anyone.
• Warning: An editor with no knowledge of this story selected this photo. It may or may not make sense in the context used.
• Warning: This image was provided to us by Aunt Sally’s cat, who fell off a bookshelf and landed, paws down, on her 1973 SX70 Polaroid. Had we not eliminated our photo staff, maybe we would have had a photo of the cat falling.

Over on the NPPA listserv, Mark Hertzberg posted links to a pair of stories that come out of England about a soccer team that is not credentialing photographers this season, instead telling them to buy them from the official photographers.

Which lead one paper to, brilliantly, have an illustrator draw the key action moments from the game. A new market for courtroom sketch artists, perhaps?

Justice has been served, although it is unclear if the judge who allowed Los Angeles Times photographer Al Seib to shoot in her court and then prohibited him from publishing the images. Though it is unclear if the original judge understands the error she made.

I just love this … Glen Canning on how to fail at video, in massive ways.

(Thanks to … well, everyone on Twitter who posted this today.)

Courtesy of News Photographer editor Don Winslow …

Founded in memory of James Alan Cox, a television photojournalist, The James Alan Cox Foundation for Student Photographers aims to provide financial support to student photographers of high school and college age. Through a variety of funding, including equipment purchases and scholarships for college and technical school classes, the foundation’s mission is to expand educational and developmental opportunities for student photographers demonstrating interest, talent and financial need.

Type of Awards:

Five (5) Digital Cameras will be awarded to five (5) high school students.
Five (5) $2,000 scholarships will be awarded to five (5) college or technical school students. Four awards will be for video work while one will be for still photography.

For more info, visit the foundation’s web site.

We’ve talked before about Steve McCurry’s being given the last roll of Kodachrome ever made, now there are some more details about what he did with it. Can’t wait for the National Geographic special …

Melissa Lyttle, one of the organizers behind A Photo A Day, is the point of contact for GeekFest 2010. Frannie Fabian went last year and reports it’s a great event – cheap and a great community to be a part of. Check it out.

Los Angeles Times photographer Al Seib requested permission, in writing, from Judge Hilleri G. Merritt to photograph the arraignment of Alberd Tersargyan and was given the okay. During the arraignment, the judge (based on requests from lawyers involved) rescinded permission – and then told Seib he was not allowed to publish the images he had already made, according to an LA Times story.

This will be interesting to watch – will the Times run the photos? Will Judge Merritt hold Seib (or the Times) in contempt if they are published? Will the judge rescind the order? It would be a clear case of prior restraint if enforced, something the U.S. Supreme Court has never allowed to stand.

You’ve all seen the series of YouTube videos from Blendtec, where they blend up everything from iPhones to marbles. Now, they seem to have partnered with Olympus …

My desire for an Olympus Pen just keeps growing …

(Thanks to my old friend Alexander Koromilas for the link.)