Craft – Page 39 – Visual Journalism

February 19, 2011

Come Early, Stay Late

It’s not the way to make friends with party hosts, but it is the way to make pictures that tell stories. As a news photographer in the late 1990s, I worked for my hometown paper, a paper that, at the time, boasted some of the best shooters in New England. Getting to work alongside Shannon McHugh-Power, Eddie Hopfmann and Paul...

Craft/Journalism

February 9, 2011

The Last Roll of Kodachrome

I have written (probably too much) about Steve McCurry getting the last roll of Kodachrome film made and how he took it around the world. Now, the photos have been published in a Vanity Fair slideshow. (Well, I think they’ve been published … the slideshow isn’t actually working right now. Funny, among my now-useless skill set is how to un-jam...

Craft/Good Work

January 30, 2011

Jazz Legends by a Jazz Legend

In a remarkable feet, photographer William P. Gottlieb left his archive of photographs of jazz musicians to the public – upon his death i 2006, his work was released into the public domain. It’s a wonderful set of images, images that ooze access and style in places, the rawness of the off-stage performers life in other places. The light moves...

Craft/Good Work

January 28, 2011

Being Ready

We issued cameras to the intro students this week, so they’re off wandering around Athens, pointing their cameras at completely random things and cursing at the buttons. They sort of hate me now, I think. The one thing I tell every student, every semester, is to make sure you have your camera with you at all times. You just don’t...

Craft/Good Work/Journalism

January 26, 2011

Mantra vs. Mission Statement

Guy Kawaski was the original Macintosh evangelist. I know this because for many years I subscribed to his Mac EvangeList listserv. (Which was, I think, the first one I ever subscribed to in, um … 1993?) In this video from a Stanford University presentation, he talks about wasting time and money on creating a 50-word mission statement. Instead, create a...

Advice & Learning/Business & Industry/Craft/Journalism

January 5, 2011

Manifestations of Moments in Time

The end of the year brings a blitz of “the year in pictures” packages. I did them, too, when I was shooting and editing. They are a nice way to look back, see what you did and, more importantly, see what your community did. But my old friend Scott Bryant took a different turn with his year-end package. He’s the...

Craft/Good Work/Journalism

January 3, 2011

The Photographic Resolution

The resolving power of modern cameras is pretty stunning to me. When the transition from film to digital was just beginning, the state of the art in scanners could do a 2000 dpi scan of a negative. Digital will never come close to this, we said as we (silently) lusted after the original Kodak/Associated Press NC-2000. That camera produced a...

Advice & Learning/Craft/Good Work

January 1, 2011

For 2011, Tell Stories That Matter

Citizen journalism. This isn’t the first time that phrase has slithered out of my fingers and, unfortunately, I’m sure it won’t be the last. But it’s a phrase I want to start with because there are a lot of people decrying the future of my profession and using that as the excuse. Those who have read me, listened to me...

Business & Industry/Craft/Journalism/Photojournalism

December 30, 2010

Mama, They’ve Taken My Kodachrome Away

Today’s the day. For generations of photographers, some time this afternoon, there may be a little hollowness in our hearts–Dwayne’s Photo will process the last rolls of Kodachrome today, a film Kodak discontinued last year. In production since 1935, I don’t think anyone knows how many historical and family moments have been recorded on it. I have an idea for...

Advice & Learning/Craft/Tech Talk

December 22, 2010

Looking Back, Again

Librado Romero at the New York Times has been producing a wonderful series of stories looking back at the great photojournalists who have worked for the Gray Lady. The latest focuses on Ernie Sisto who spent five decades at the Times. According to Romero, he was a great storyteller and a pretty good photographer. “I was doing a handstand on...