July 19, 2011 Finding Focus Melissa Lyttle tweeted this comment: Dear young photographer, be more like this guy. And … she’s right. Read that, ponder it, then go do it. Categories Craft/Journalism/Photojournalism
July 18, 2011 Photographers at Work Life.com has a collection of images up of their photographers at work over the years. It’s always fun to take a look at how our predecessors were equipped, and they’ve asked Andrew Hetherington to comment on them, as well. To me, looking through the images, two really stand out. The first is of John Shearer (at left) working outside the... Categories At Work/Business & Industry/Craft/Good Work/Photojournalism
July 17, 2011 Canon Ambassadors: Advice for Young Photographers On the European Canon Professional Services web site there are five short interviews with photojournalists offering advice to young shooters. Worth a few minutes of your time. From the interview with Gary Knight, one of the founders of the VII agency: This has always been a confusing industry to enter. It’s always been a difficult business to survive in. It’s... Categories Advice & Learning/Business & Industry/Craft/Photojournalism
July 16, 2011 The Odd Lives We Lead My students hear my stories (sometimes multiple times) and, occasionally, I see a little doubt in their eyes. But they’re true – weird things happen if you shoot long enough. For your morning reading, I direct you to the Chicago Tribune’s Alex Garcia and his 9 Odd, Scary and Quirky Moments as a Photojournalist post. Stick around, the weird will... Categories At Work/Business & Industry/Craft/Photojournalism
July 11, 2011 The Life Balancing Act Richard Wong over at Black Star Rising has a reminder to all of us that we need to work to maintain the balance between our professional life and our family life. I can count on one or two hands the number of really great photojournalists that I know personally who have managed the balancing act. I think back to my... Categories Advice & Learning/At Work/Business & Industry/Craft/Photojournalism
July 6, 2011 Caffenol: A Homemade Film Developer Yep … get out your cameras and some black and white film, then tap into your coffee supply (along with a few other things) to develop it says Gizmodo. Hate to admit … I want to try this. Anyone have a home-brewed fixer recipe? Categories Craft/Tech Talk
July 6, 2011 Scared or Democratized – What Kind of Photographer Are You? Over at Nuwomb, Scott Webb wrote about the battle between “scared” photographers – those who think everything new is a gimmick – and “democratized” photographers – who think everything new is an opportunity. Where do you fall? Me? I fall on the side of storytelling, because that’s how I use this medium. I’m not an artist and, while I appreciate... Categories Advice & Learning/Craft/Tech Talk
July 5, 2011 When “New” Replaces “Good” Over at Black Star Rising, David Saxe wrote about how curators are now evaluating some work – and the only criteria seems to be whether it is “new.” So what we’ve seen is photographers making their photographs larger, changing the format from rectangular to square, and authoring more loquacious artist statements. This is the new “new.” The subject is as... Categories Craft
July 1, 2011 John Stanmeyer on the Long Term Story National Geographic shooter John Staneyer is starting a series of blog posts about working on in-depth pieces for the yellow-bordered magazine. From his first post, comes this bit of wisdom: Some stories visually speak for themselves — war/conflict, social revolutions, famine and other event driven stories are primarily (though not all) about recording the occurrence transpiring before us. Long term... Categories At Work/Business & Industry/Craft/Good Work/Photojournalism
June 28, 2011 What Students Should Do with Their Summer Break Michael P. King gives a list of tips over on the NPPA Visual Student blog about what photojournalism students should be doing this summer to improve their portfolio. I’d add a 13th: Make yourself uncomfortable. Self-assign yourself a project or single image that is so wildly beyond what you’re used to doing that it makes you sweat, that you can’t... Categories Advice & Learning/Business & Industry/Craft/Photojournalism