Techniques of natural sound

By reading the tips on how to put together a great nat sound story, I realized that there are more ways to tell someone's story than just reporting. Before this class, before experiencing with the audio recorder, I never knew that there were more compelling ways to get a message out there, and tell a story. I liked the tip on how not to ask questions, but to get the interview by just engaging in a natural conversation. I also thought it was cool to put on a wireless lav on the subject instead of putting an intrustive mic in their face. That probably makes the subject more comfortable, and much easier to talk to. In these stories, "wild sound" is key and very important. I think in a lot of stories today, that is a concept that is lost. Overall, I actually like the idea better of a natural sound story than typical reporting. I think it takes reporting to a whole new level. I love how the viewer is just listening to the story, instead of being told whats going on.

Natural sound: Learn from book and practice

The article "natural sound stories" did help me with some confusion in the audio story assignment, especially the part "know your story". When I was collecting the natural sounds for my story, all I thought was about how to set a scene for the story or add identification for the interviewee. Now I found that they are good points but not good enough, because of lacking a general idea. Before I start for the natural sound, I should bury in mind what I'm going to tell the audience and frame my story with a clear outline, and then I can collect the natural sounds that will better server for the story and show a WHOLE picture for the audience but in pieces.

In addition, "seek active sound in multiple locations" is a strategy that I applied in my audio story - yet I'm not sure that it is too tricky, but it is really helpful for my story. When I was building my final work with the interviewing clips, I found that I have many options to do the stories. It does not only mean that I have options to find the best and most suitable track for my story, but can also modify my work in different ways with different combinations - that is where the options are.

The mixed mind of Corky Scholl's work

(I found that I was confused about the due dates of the course works because we split the class this week...so I will leave both of my reponses here)

What is the exact meaning of "television photojournalism"? I'm not sure the focus here is on television or photo, although both of them have an emphasis on visual impressions. That is why I have a mixed mind about Corky Scholl's work.

On one side, the detail shots are really attractive, especially in the bee story. Color, angle and every other element in each single frame greatly impressed me. I will really appreciate his work if there are exhibited in front of me as pictures.

On the other side, some of the detail shots are so trivial and appear so frequently that sometimes made me lose my minds of the general idea of the story. Still, the whole story is great job, just sometimes it is a little bit "out of focus".

Who should narrate?

Watching Cory Scholl's television stories, I noticed something about the narration. Some of the videos had a faceless narrator, I assume the journalist, and others just had the subjects themselves speak.

The story on inner-city handball, for example, was one that relied solely on the words of the players themselves. One explained why they were there and what they did.

For more complex stories, like that of the storm or the fallen marines, I understand why the journalist chose to use a "floating" voice to lead in the story and fill in the details.

Those stories that stood on their own, however, left a pure image of the story in my mind. None of the stories overused narration, I thought, but on the other hand those with no narration were superior in my mind.

Scholl Video

I really enjoyed Scholl's first video on the hail storm. With a meteorological event, everyone who was affected by the event knows what's happened. Scholl uses that common experience well in the first video, as he doesn't add any voice overs for the story. He lets the people, the nat sound and the images tell the story, which makes it a much stronger way to convey the story to people who probably went through similar experiences.

He does a great job of framing his subjects. The images of the bee crawling on the camera, the girl's eyes when she's waiting for her brother at the airport, and the racquetball moving are all really creative and well-framed shots. He doesn't do too much panning with the camera, but he's able to show an entire scene by editing lots of different shots into the story. It's clear that he's taken video from just about every angle while reporting.

In several of the videos, he gives credit to the photojournalist who came with him. I've heard that done at least once on KOMU, but why doesn't that happen more often?

Convergence Confab

Corky
By Maneeza
I watched a few of Scholl's boardcasts. He uses a lot of scene shots of people on their enviroment. You hear a voice over and you see the action of the person describing the action. I saw this story about bees. It was one of my favorites. He showed you the man working with the bees and the man explaining the situation. The thing that I liked was that he didn't have waste time with his cover shots, he used a voice over to provide information when the cover shots were up. The bees story had good nat sound and it made you feel like you were at the scene.
Corky's stories, that I saw, did the one thing that I enjoy about jounralism and that is interview the people and not the officials. The stories were about how the people were handling a situation and made them the experts instead of officials that wouldn't be able to connect with the people.

Limitation in Broadcast reporting?

By Joyce Choi

It does bother me sometimes that we need to get nat sound, motions and good concise quotes. The readings "Natural Sound Stories" and "Staged, Staging, Stages" in some ways convinced me that these are the elements crucial to the reporting. These nat sounds, motions and original quotes are not just there to make story interesting - but they should be part of the reality, they should give credibility to journalists' reporting and it is a matter of the journalists' ability to get these elements.

Just as a good newspaper reporter needs good interviewing skills, research skills and writing skills (altogether, reporting skills) to get the fullest picture of what's happening; for those who do not explain by words, but by sounds and visuals need another type of reporting skills to tell the story. With this concept in mind, I convinced myself that it's the matter of my bad broadcast reporting skills that make broadcast journalism seem a bit less genuine.

Having said that, I still holds the idea that if we are searching for story subjects with sounds and motions - we are discriminating many many stories. While it's true "everybody has a story to tell", not everybody or every story subject has something to tell in sounds or motions. Are we fair to such stories? Or it's just a matter of craft and there are always ANOTHER way to do it (with intelligence and planning)?

“Staged, Staging, Stages”: The Skill of Being Invisible

One thing I noticed about doing journalism – and this goes along the lines of Wertheimer’s essay – is that the skill of being invisible is crucial. This is especially true in TV and photography. Often times, a nearly invisible photographer/cameraperson will get images that are more authentic, which usually translates for the viewers into the notion of “credible.”

Instead of pushing one’s way to the front row, flashing a fancy camera, it may be better to find an unusual angle from the back of the room. There are times, of course, when you need to be “pushy,” but a photographer’s quiet presence doesn’t always lead to a lack of good images. It’s all about using one’s reason in every different situation.

One suggestion I picked out from the article is about making observations rather than asking questions. Indeed, this may be a way to make your subject more comfortable and get great quotes.

I really liked the videos from the website because of the momentum of the images. I think the stories about the extreme weather were very entertaining and informative. I especially liked the first one because I felt like I was there. And the perspective was great, with a broad range of opinions and what the change in weather meant to the people that it affected.

scholl's stories prove it

Although I can't say some of the Corky School stories didn't grab my attention, for the most part they only solidified my distaste for most television news. The stories were fluffy and weren't really anywhere in the realm of real news, aside from the June hail and snow storm story. Yes, they probably weren't supposed to be anything more than little features about quirky things in the neighborhood, but those kinds of stories are what fill up newscasts day in and day out. The radio stories have a feel of real journalism and storytelling in them even if they don't cover serious topics. Why can't I get that from TV?

Corky Schollllllllllllll

I don’t know about anyone else in the class, but I really enjoyed Corky Scholl’s series. Personally, I loved the fluidity of his shots, how each one poured into the next–all the while linked via voiceovers. It is true that some of the stories themselves were a bit light, but at the same time I thought that they all had at least some interest. In fact, some of them had a bit of the bizarre, as with the “weather-gone-crazy” type story (both with the storm and the fires). His visuals were very interesting, however, and he did a good job of switching up shots so that we’d get a good mixture of extreme long shots, medium shots, and close ups. Also, there is a sense of movement in his work. (It looks as though it the camera is either handheld or on a dolly at points, especially in the first story.)
Moreover, I like the fact that he did not always narrate his stories, and sometimes let the material speak for itself. That was rather engaging, because I felt like I was watching the story unfold, as opposed to it being told to me.
(I know it’s been said, but the ambient sound was fantastic as well. The bees buzzing is fantastic, but also the sound of the airport announcer helped to focus the story about the brother and sister.)

Video journalism examples

The thing that immediately hit me about the video examples was the detail shots. Just like how our photos needed a detail shot, these examples all had elaborate detail shots that made the video come alive. The bee story started out with a swarm of bees up close. The hail story had extremely textured sound of sluch being shoveled, and the flag story had an incredibly powerful moment where the a flag was dripping wet from the rain, but it looked almost as though it was crying.

Another thing that hit me about these examples was the varieety of the storys. They went from the profound and extraordinary to the house just down the block where the bees had created a hive. The handball story was good because they never told you where it took place. It looked like it could have been almost anywhere in the United States.

-Alex Lowe

Scholl's way – The Ad’s way?

By Joyce Choi

I share Elena's impressed feeling towards Corky Scholl's TV storytelling. What I want to emphasize more, is how EXCITED and ENGAGED I got while watching the series of clips.

Like Caroline, I don't know much about broadcast journalism. In fact, I don't really appreciate broadcast in many ways. But as Elena said, Scholl's clips are a form of art! How amazing that almost EVERY SINGLE frame in the clips is itself an excellent photograph. I believe it is the quality of each and every frame, add on to the fast-paced editing, that make the clips so compelling.

While Jordan finds it difficult to stay with the fast-paced editing, I, on the other hand, think it is just right for me. (I LOVE the Handball Story!!!) There is not a still frame or a quote that goes beyond 5 seconds. Information is fast and clear - with no redundancy. I would say Scholl's TV journalism is just like the advertising art of conveying messages in the most concise and compelling method. As a young people in the Information Age, I have become accustomed to and like the "snap-snap-snap" - super quick inflow of information. True though, for people of older generation, probably this is not a good journalism.

But, how many broadcast journalists out there would have the luxury to work on that? Most probably, they have the skills, but the pressing nature of TV news would not allow them to manifest their crafts.

Corky Scholl ties it in.

Mo Scarpelli --
I was extremely impressed (as many obviously were... "The Best of Television Photojournalism 2005") by the Corky Scholl stories... I could only manage to get my computer to watch up to the running story, but here are some things I noticed that really made the stories I saw stick out to me --
The hail story was made interesting with the use of commentary (usually whitty things from locals shoveling hail or getting stuck in their cars). I liked that there were no voiceovers from a newscaster, but the story was still complete. There was enough information gathered through the citizens and unique shot angels of hail and downpouring rain.
The fire story was similar to the hail story because it was a bizarre natural disaster story - a huge forest fire occured in March, when it's usually too wet for that to happen... "It's March, for crying out loud," a fireman says. I liked the aerial views of the raging fire.
The bee story did an excellent job juxtaposing threatening shots of dangerous bees (they look way scarier in such close shots) with the laid back attitude of the people that deal with them. The conclusion was great, where the boy is walking away, swatting at bees as he fades out.
I didn't enjoy the delayed flight story about uniting with the brother all that much. I think an impatient mood was created well with detail shots -- the hand tapping the leg, the people hurrying down the corrider -- but the girls' voices were kind of annoying and a little to frequent. By the time they'd met the brother, I didn't really care about them all that much because they seemed too giggly to really care that the flight was delayed.
The marine memorial story was excellent. I loved the head shot of the man that read off the names - he was positioned just so that the flags seemed to be waving around him forever. As they expanded on the respect for the resilience of the marines that passed away in war, I really liked how the flags that were planted to represent the marines seemed almost as resilient -- in one shot, lightening struck in the background, in another extreme closeup, rain dripped slowly from the flag's corner. The varied shots kept the story interesting, but the same mood was sustained throughout the piece -- a somber and formal mood of reverence and mourning for the marines that served for the U.S. and gave their lives.
The handball story was another one of my favorites. There were, like the hail story at the beginning, no voice overs, and this worked well - the men, with their accents and informal speech, really portrayed a unique feeling for their neighborhood game of handball. The shots lended to this - they varied quickly, as the game itself moves quickly, and I liked that they showed a lot of fast moving body parts (especially scuffling sneakers). It kind of got me pumped up to play - it looks like a fun game.
The story of the 75-year-old woman training for a half marathon used a succession of varied shots like the handball story - this unique mood was created again, especially when she was in the weight room. The clang of the weights, the closeup of the weight machine, of her tiny pink-lipsticked mouth breathing out as she pushed herself... it was truly artistic, the way her story was portrayed. I loved it.

Corky Scholl proves that photojournalism is an art. With smart shots and editing, he crafts the most amazing stories.

Corky Scholl Stories

From Jennifer-
Corky Scholl's stories are unique because of the variety of shots used and how they are edited together to keep it feeling like one piece. The stories are visually appealing because there are many images but they are organized in a way that keeps the viewer on track with the story.
I especially enjoyed the story about the beehive because the story was told from a variety of perspectives, including the family, the beekeeper and the people in the neighborhood. Many photojournalists would have relied on video from the beekeeper and family, but the shots of the little boy running away from the house made it a humorous piece while still telling the story effectively.

Corky Scholl. TV story or a work of art?

Scholl’s hailstorm coverage came out so impressive that for me it set a new standard for visual media. With not a word from the reporter, a baffling, moving and amusing drama unfolds in this TV story. A multitude of voices, telling images, clean cuts. More than one story could be told in this piece, but it stays simple and compelling all the way through.

Scholl’s work is especially interesting when contrasted to radio stories. Radio is a medium of words. Pieces like Michigan Radio’s Artpod create mental images through the reporter’s voicing and soundbites. Pieces like Scholl’s create storytelling through images. Scholl’s is a story that's, literally, untold, but also one that speaks for itself.

Multimedia. Rwanda: 10 Years Later

This multimedia project is striking mainly for the photos of massacre and recovery in Rwanda. One of my favorite images is the dark face of a woman with tens of portraits of victims of the 1994 killings shown at the background. The multimedia creates a powerful image of a country that was little known to me before I saw this presentation.

But multimedia projects also have weaknesses. There is hardly enough time to read the captions when the slideshow is on, and while the reporter’s voice, together with the photos, competes for one’s attention. I had to go back to this presentation and watch it a few times – a luxury that few of NYTimes.com users can afford.

Afghanistan Dispatches

Steff Sanchez:

I really enjoyed this series, and felt that the multimedia aspect was well accounted for not only in the streaming video, but the attached written story. The subject matter of the election offered a number of great angles and an opportunity for spectacular journalism.
Perhaps my favorite facet of this story was the portion that was published from October 7-8 about the radio stations. I loved the interview with the man working, listening to political news on the radio. The stereo set seemed almost a character to itself, as the camera closed in on it just 'hanging out' (as it were) and delivering important information while the men carried on around it.
Overall, the marriage of video and sound seemed flawless, and the smooth transitions made it extremely easy for each shot to flow into the next. I can see how this story could have problems since it deals with radio (an audio-only medium), but the visuals were extremely engaging.

See me, hear me

I was drawn by the second place POY winner for small media in an interactive publication, "Chiloé Stories." This interactive video and photo slideshow revolved around an islandic fishing community in Chile. Having South American heritage, Chiloé Stories stood out in my eyes and ears more so than other presentations of which the subjects were more unfamiliar.

The approach to using Spanish-speaking subjects was inconsistent, as the videos used subtitles, while the slideshow with audio was dubbed over. I personally prefer subtitles when listening to someone speak in another language, may it be Spanish or another that I don't understand. I can see the challenge in incorporating subtitles into a photo slideshow, but I think it would have been worth the trouble to have translations under the photos.

Aside from this, the presentation was extremely informative, yet entertaining. The audio added another dimension to the photos and perhaps kept my attention ten times over than what it would have been without sound.

Just like marriage

I went through most of the POY award winning multimedia entries in a few hours - all of them are excellent works. Still, I have my preference: the First Place of Best Use of Multi-Media / Interactive Publication: Large Media of 62nd POY, The 2004 Campaign in Pictures of Photography on NYTimes.com:2004 produced by NYTimes.com, impressed me most.

This series of multimedia works has a diversity of its audio clips. It has photographers' narrative to introduce the election and provide the background information; it includes the original audio records of speeches and presidential debates in an elaborate timeline; it also contains the sound tracks of interviews of citizens on the streets. These different kinds of audios compose a lifelike scene of election campaigns to readers. In addition, it also applies various skills on the visual communication by using pictures – single-frame pictures and slide shows, maps and charts, which create a comprehensive picture for the election to the audiences. I really appreciate the efforts that the crew made to tell the story in such a multi-dimensional way.

Having browsed most of these multimedia works, I feel that the composition of pictures and audios have the same rules with marriage: 1 plus 1 is not always equal to 2. Good pictures and good audio may not beome combinations, just like good persons may not make happy marriages. The best couples of multimedia entries, as well as marriages, come from BOTH similarities and differences: similarities to be matched, and difference to be complementary to tell the whole story of life.

Reminding Me.

Mo Scarpelli --
Good journalism. Sometimes it makes you sick. It's a good thing -- if the journalist can reach you that deeply, they are doing their job.
Today is the fifth anniversary of the terrorism attacks of September 11th, and so several multimedia sites on the list of Picture of the Year winners have slideshows/presentations on the aftermath of the attacks. After sifting through several of these (Washington Post, especially), I got a little sick to my stomach.
I moved on to the large selection on the NY Times website... where I found Hurrican Katrina photos, one of a dead man floating in the flood facedown and bloated. I got even sicker.
And finally, I looked through the horror chronologized about the violence in Kosovo. The destruction of the homes, especially in the first picture, where a half-decayed pig lies in the center of the rubble, only added to my somber mood.
The pureness, the terrible conditions and the rawness of suffering captured by the winners of the Picture of the Year award from the NY Time made me sick to my stomach. I'm not complaining, though. This is good journalism. These are realities that need to be exposed, these are issues that need to stick in my mind.
The journalists at the New York Times inspire me to embrace the hardship of life as well in my journalism career.
Pictures really can tell a thousand words in some cases.
And then there are the times when there are just no words. Good photojournalism create these moments, and although we may feel sick, we cannot turn away.

Great slideshow...even with the technical difficulties

Jennifer Galt -
The multi-media story and essay "Photographer's Journal: Campaign Moments" by NYTimes.com illustrates well how multi-media tools can be used to tell interesting and captivating stories. But for me (and my computer), it also demonstrated the possible problems. The audio on the slideshow loaded faster than the photos, therefore I got only a brief glimpse of each photo before being hurried along because of the audio. Luckily there were captions describing each picture so that made it easier to follow. I still enjoyed the slideshow/essay and the photographers' comments made the story more personable. I also liked how the essays were organized into different campaign categories and years. This gives the viewer the feeling of more control and the ability to easily navigate around the page.

Effective Reporting!

Pictures speak more than words! And moving pictures PLUS sounds speak even more.

Among the POY multimedia winner entries, the best clips I like are Best Use of Multi-Media / Interactive Publication: Large Media: First Place, NYTimes.com (2004).

Under the topic Asia, the "China's Great Divide" is such a comprehensive, educational journalism. I was very amazed how much I have learnt about China from the some 10 minutes, with such ENJOYMENT.

The topics (Education, Pollution, Protest, Religion, Land, Family, Wealth & Riots) covered are frequently reported on the TV news, newspaper, radio, magazines or textbooks. The topics and the contents are not new at all, at least to me a HongKonger. But the way this multi-media site does it in a sequence and in such programmed order, it creates CONSISTENCY and FLOW that help me grasp most of the information taught. The visual, the audio are all there to generate the full picture. I feel that the interaction power given to me (to make choice when I want the information, in what order) psychologically encourages or rewards me to go on, and learn more.

To get audience REMEMBER and FEEL THE IMPACT of the news stories are very important. After browsing these multi-media sites, I feel how powerful and attractive multi-media are, as well as, the weaknesses of the other mono-media.

being brave as a photographer

I viewed the slideshow with audio about photographing presidential campaigns by Geoff McGhee, Stephen Crowley, Lisa Tozzi and Judith Schlieper from the New York Times. It was outstanding.

First, after seeing some of the slideshows in class, I feel like slideshows without audio are missing something. Instead of having audio from the subjects themselves (as was the case with the examples in class), this slideshow had the photographers commenting on the photos, telling viewers background information and talking about how some of their favorite shots came to be. One of the shots was of President Reagan's final hours in the Oval Office, and the photographer said they drew names out of a hat to see which of them would get to be there. Sometimes luck is just luck.

Another difficulty they illustrated well is the problem of getting different shots and moods every day when you're following the same candidate around. In one instance, thinking John Kerry would step over a gap in the stage to talk to some workers, the photographer got down there and laid down on his back, waiting. Sure enough, Kerry did come, and he got a great picture. For those of us who still feel invasive with a camera, that kind of boldness is a long way away.

A Room with a View

This is a very random thought after reading David LaBelle's "The Great Picture Hunt" and scanning David Snider's Street photos.

The entry title is a little bit irrelevant somehow. Anyway, the windows in E.M. Forster's novel "A Room with a View" represent the gateway / connection of a person (specifically, woman) to the world outside.

Here, also imagine how a baby just born who opens his/her eyes for the first time, and his/her first touch of parents' hands?

This is how I see how life is so interesting and magical. We are brought to this world (like it or not), and to reach out to people, to the immense world. For most of us who have the opportunity to see, we are given a great chance to see the wonderful colours, lights and shapes of this world. Some others can also smell, hear, and feel.

For us who are so fortunate to have a camera, when you are looking through the viewfinder, won't you sometimes feel that "oh, why haven't I seen this with my bare eyes before". And if you start to play with different angles, you would perhaps realize there are so many perspectives that we can see just for one thing.

To make things more magical, often when I look at my photographs printed out or on the computer screen, I could not imagine I have taken photos of what I am seeing. Other peole's great photography serve even more amazements. Be it the distortion of photography, be it the distortion of our memory, be it the distortion of psychology, I just find that photography resembles ANOTHER window, if not another room with another view.

Through photography, it seems like I have an extra sense (apart from my eyes, ears, mouth and touch) that helps me reach this wonderful world. Hopefully, what I have photographed could also encourage people to better appreciate LIFE!

Networking or as we at the J-school call it "The Mizzou Mofia"

I know it seems odd to talk about networking, but it jumped out at me because it reminded me of "The Mizzou Mofia". Whenever I do an interview for a story, I keep all my notes and contact information because I never know when I will need to talk to that person again. Sometimes I do end up calling them again (sometimes they remember me other times they don't, but it works out). LaBelle uses the same idea except for photographs. I never thought of it that way. When I think of networking I think of people who can get you a job because you went to the same school or past sources. LaBelle's networking uses citizen journalism to the help professional journalists. What better way to cover a story then by having the people involved show it to you. This way you know what is important to your readership. The people involved help decide what is going in instead of an editor that is dettached from the story.

Snyder and LaBelle make it look easy

I loved looking at David Snyder's street photos. I also loved David LaBelle's "Picture Hunt." What's frustrating about viewing great pictures like these (and reading about them) is that they look like they were incredibly easy to do, which of course they weren't. Although LaBelle tell potential feature photographers about preparation and patience, I would have been heartened to see another p-word--practice--mentioned a little more. I once read that to really take good pictures, the first thing you need is five miles of film.

It's also interesting to see that LaBelle's qualities of good feature hunters are almost exactly the same as the skills taught to print reporters, such as eavesdropping, listening to police scanners, making contacts, and just walking around the city. Although it probably shouldn't have been surprising, I couldn't help but be surprised. Photojournalism is reporting--just with a different medium.

Convergence Confab

I was extremely touched by David Snider’s photographs. I cannot think of any other way to describe the mood he sets other than powerful. Every shot held its own unique feeling, and as a viewer I felt like I was witnessing a moment. There is something so spontaneous and natural about the photographs. From the ordinary (such as the man asleep at the station,) to the rawness of the weathered (and marked) hand, these pictures have a vibrancy that is remarkable for the medium of still image.
Moreover, I like the stylistic choice of having the photographs be black and white. The contrast between light and dark makes the images that more pressing in my mind. If Snider had employed color, it would have overpowered the shot and thereby muted the image, because there would be too much to take in.
On a personal note, my favorite was the photograph of the child peeking out from the side of wall (shot in Vaison la Romaine, France). The happiness on the subject’s face is so infectious; I could not help but smile after seeing this picture.

Cruising.

Mo Scarpelli - Columbia is, despite its stark advantages over my hometown in Michigan, still sometimes just a small boring town. On nights or afternoons where this really wears on me, I take pictures.
David LaBelle describes in his article the art of "Cruising" as a remedy for the photojournalists' form of writer's block. Sometimes it seems the world has NOTHING to offer in the way of news. It's then that the journalist needs to step outside of the box and find their own something - sometimes anything - that's unique, fun, silly, or beautiful.
In my experiences with cruising, I've found that I have a knack for finding beautiful things amidst places and people that don't seem to offer anything of the sort. Like LaBelle, I attribute this to being at the right time at the right moment, not to my extrordinary facilities as a photographer (I hardly know how to use my Rebel K2... I'm just now learning was aperture means!).
Once in awhile, I'll get my film back and find, maybe because it was in black in white, maybe because the lighting was just right (that's usually an accident, by the way)... but I have at least one amazing picture that I never expected. Sometimes beauty is in the simplicity, or the complexity or the awkwardness... sometimes it's obvious beauty, sometimes it's obviously ugly (and then beautiful later, on film)... photography will always be an exhilerating hobby for me because of the surprises I find in its results.
Cruising works, too. I don't always find my mannequin in an oversized tire (LaBelle's money shot one boring afternoon), but I come close plenty of times.
Give me a deadline, though, and it may be a different story.

I've always thought of photojournalism as the most creative media in journalism. The risks you have to take can be hard to manage though. I think it's very uncomfortable to get up in someone's face, making them feel uncomfortable. But I think with time you get used to it and then take some really great pictures. At least I hope so. The power of photography is very strong, and when done well, it makes that moment timeless. David Snider is a very talented photographer and it takes guts to do what he does.

I've always thought of photojournalism as the most creative media in journalism. The risks you have to take can be hard to manage though. I think it's very uncomfortable to get up in someone's face, making them feel uncomfortable. But I think with time you get used to it and then take some really great pictures. At least I hope so. The power of photography is very strong, and when done well, it makes that moment timeless. David Snider is a very talented photographer and it takes guts to do what he does.

Are captions a big deal?

The article written by David Snider gave a peek into the work of a photojournalist, but I still wonder how much information is needed to accompany a photo.

I felt that MOST of Snider's work stood alone, without captions, naming the location of the action--like Paris. One of these Paris shots in particular showed a waiter delivering a drink and glasses. I ASSUMED, however, that this was the subject and action, and a journalist shouldn’t make assumptions in delivering information.

When does the photographer cross the line from, as Snider writes, "a patient watcher of humanity," to a reporter needing the information for a story? Did he get permission from the parents of the young child in the Tompkins Square Park to use his photo? I assume he did—but oh wait, I shouldn’t.

I can see how the “shoot first, ask questions later” policy would be a good one in photography.

For example, I covered a musical event in downtown Columbia with a checked-out camera. I introduced myself to an artist right away and asked for his information and permission to shoot, which may have ruined my pictures. I got the feeling that the photos were not as spontaneous as they would have been if I had just been in the corner, ten feet away as Snider routinely was for his shots.

The compromise between the picture and the interactivity of the photojournalist is one I have yet to learn, but I think it will have a large impact on the photos that result from either observing action or getting in the middle of it.

Cat Nap

Maybe it's just me, but I've always struggled to read articles by photographers. I guess the same goes for any field -- who has the patience to listen to someone talk about how much patience they have? -- but I think that with photography, it's especially important that the end product really captures what the photographer was trying to do. With both LaBelle and Snider, it's obvious: these guys spend a lot of time setting up their photos, waiting for the right moments to appear, and then capturing those moments on film . I think Snider's photo of the cats is a fine example. The lighting, the angle, the framing -- this is something that took vision. To pose a photo is one thing; to allow the moment to happen organically is another matter. These two clearly did the latter.

Photojournalism and everyday moments

David LaBelle's article shows that great photojournalism doesn't need a lot of action and monumental moments. Good technique and willingness to get close to the subject can result in a compelling image not normally seen. There are opportunities to capture interesting photos in everyday moments, the photos just need to be taken at the right moment and in the right way. It's nice to know that there are many great photo opportunities out there and all we have to do is show up and try our best to tell the story.

Bill Gates' Checkered Past

To hear the Digital Journalist tell it, Bill Gates' home decorating scheme was the beginning of the end of free-lance photography. Yes, Bill Gates, like Walt Disney, plotted behind closed doors in places of inscrutible power for the obliteration of these free-spirited folks.
The more likely scenario is that the evolving technology made free-lancers somewhat obsolete- or rather their business naivete made them vulnerable to the first predator that came along. With digital technology, it was only a matter of time.
The only really unfortunate thing that happened was the avarice with which Gates acquired agencies like Sygma and SABA. Granted, the landscape shifts with change, but earthquakes don't help anyone.
No one in the world has the luxury of being ignorant of business, unfortunately. If photographers continually let agencies take advantage of them, then they should learn to take a more active part in owning their material, and maybe organize.

In other news, David Snider's pictures were quite good. I especially like the Miles Davis picture (being a big fan of jazz) and the kid blowing the huge bubble. I only think it's a little arrogant when someone tries to take a picture of really boring tripe like a telephone pole, and expects you to appreciate it. Snider didn't really do that. His Street Pictures didn't waste my time. I am happy.

Taking photos, taking courage

David Snider’s “Street Pictures” prompted me to ask the following question: How appropriate is it to take photos of people without their permission? Especially in the United States, with people taking you to court for any – even the most absurd (forgive me for this oxymoron) – reason, how can I know the line between journalism and invasion of privacy? Who sets this line anyway? It seems to me there is no definite answer to these questions, and this makes photographers very courageous people: The best of them always find themselves on the verge of being “punished” somehow, either verbally or legally, for doing what they ought to do.