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.