Lock the doors and close the blinds, we’re going for a ride.

I was hoping to get going on this sooner, but believe it or not, the first few weeks at The Dispatch were really hectic. On top of the work, I had to move in to my new place and learn to find my way around. Nothing out of the ordinary for moving to a new city, really.

I guess I should start with what led up to this internship. I’d been procrastinating about putting together a portfolio for a while, but something finally kicked in and I got my butt in gear. At the same time, I started checking the NPAA job information board. Most of the deadlines for summer internships had passed by the time I started looking, but there was a six-month internship here in York, Pa., and applications were due in a week.

Here’s the first suggestion I can make to anyone trying to get their first internship: read the entire announcement! The photo editor at The Dispatch wants a letter from an instructor and the phone numbers of three references. If an editor asks for something in addition to your resume, portfolio and cover letter, give it to them. If you can’t follow instructions when you’re asking someone to hire you, they aren’t likely to think you can follow instructions once you’re hired. And that’s exactly the discussion my new bosses had during the review process. My application didn’t arrive until the day of the deadline, but I got hired because I had a strong portfolio and I followed the instructions.

This is my second tip: Don’t stress the fancy packaging. I stopped at Staples the day I sent off my packet and bought a nice white plastic folder. It cost $1.99. Here’s a cool one for $3.49. I put my resume and cover letter in one pocket, my letter of reference in the other. There was a slot for a CD cut into one of the pockets, and that’s where I put my portfolio CD. Make sure you write your full name, phone number and email address on the CD. You can print out a label if you want to, but sometimes CD’s with labels stuck on don’t work in slot-loading CD drives, so it’s better not to bother.

Next time: finding a place to stay

Lighting

I always struggle with using flash to light a scene, especially portraits. I elected to take multimedia classes rather than cinema & photography, so I didn’t take the studio photography course that would have been part of that track. So I try to learn what I can as I go along, sometimes with very bad results. I want to share a couple of resources that I’ve discovered lately, as well as one that I’ve been reading for quite a while.

Strobist is full of great tips for lighting and finding/making equipment on a budget. Since I’m always on a very small budget, I’ve found a lot of useful information there. In fact, I spent several hours going over the archives the first time I stumbled across the site. The DIY ethic is the foundation of Strobist, and they often feature techniques based on equipment made for free from materials you can find at home.

One of my new favorites is Analyzed, a feature on AmericanPhotojournalist.com that takes an image and reverse-engineers it so that other photographers can see the process used to create the photo. A lot of the techniques seem to involve having unlimited access to clamps, lights, etc. (and more than 30 minutes notice that someone’s coming in for a portrait), but understanding the methods often means you can make the photo with DIY equipment.

The other site I’m still working my way through is A Photographer’s Sketchbook, which diagrams the equipment and positioning the photographer used to take a variety of portraits. This is a really cool thing to do, because although the discussions on Analyzed are usually pretty good, sometimes I have a hard time figuring out exactly where people are placing their flashes just from their descriptions. The author of Photographer’s Sketchbook makes it somewhat idiot-proof. There are also sections with techniques for using two and three flashes.

They didn’t want it good, they wanted it Wednesday. -R. Heinlein

I heard about seam carving a few weeks ago, but I didn’t think it would be available to the public for months. Well, I was wrong. Rsizr (We’re so Web 2.0! We hate vowels!), a free web-based seam carving program is out now. There are some others, most notably Picutel, a PC-only program that sells for $99. Hooray. What heck is seam carving?

From Wikipedia: “Seam carving is an image resizing algorithm developed by Shai Avidan and Ariel Shamir. This algorithm alters the dimensions of an image not by scaling or cropping, but rather by intelligently removing (or adding) pixels from the image that carry little importance. The importance of a pixel is generally measured by its contrast when compared with its neighbor pixels. Seam carving can also be run in reverse by adding pixels along the lowest energy seam.”

So, this algorithm looks for uncomplicated places in a photo (sky, blurry background, etc.) and eliminates or adds them as the photo dimensions are changed. To put it even more simply, the algorithm alters reality.

Because I am a sufferer of Shiny Kit Syndrome, I was in awe for the first few seconds of the video demonstration, but then I started thinking about what this means for photojournalism. I predict more than a few discussions between photo staffs and copy desks about why we can’t just seam carve all the dead space out of an image to make it better fit the page.

Also, Dr. Avidan, was hired by Adobe right after he and his research partner released the demo video, which means that the unethical photojournalists photomanipulators out there will soon have one more tool to make their lives easier.

Outside the box

One of the things we hear in class over and over again is that we should look for all the angles when we go out and shoot a story. The Illinois United States Scholastic Band Association Marine Corps Invitational was this weekend at McAndrew Stadium in Carbondale. High school marching bands from several local towns competed, basically against themselves since there were only four bands and four categories. Still, it was fun. And in my head I heard the voices of my professors telling me to look for all the angles. So I went behind the scenes, so to speak, and got this shot.

It could be cleaner (there are too many moms, and they aren’t all standing the same way), but I like it well enough. The point is, I wouldn’t have even gotten this shot, imperfect as it is, if I hadn’t been thinking about how to bring something different to this story.

NPPA Flying Short Course

I paid for the Flying Short Course this weekend. Online registration finally opened, but there still isn’t any information up beyond the fact that Loyola is hosting it. I’ve been to the FSC twice before, and both times were invaluable learning experiences. Of course, that was back in the dark ages when most photographers were still shooting with manual focus film cameras. I can’t even imagine going back. But look, if you want to get your portfolio looked at by photojournalists from someplace besides Springfield or Peoria, the FSC is the place to go. You can get your gear cleaned and tuned up by Canon or Nikon reps and maybe even grab a bagful of free junk. And there’s usually free beer.

From the NPPA Web Site:

“Speakers confirmed for this year’s traveling national faculty include Pulitzer Prize and Robert Capa Gold Medal winner Carolyn Cole of the Los Angeles Times; Pulitzer Prize-winner Renée C. Byer of The Sacramento Bee; Pultizer Prize-winner and freelance photojournalist Rick Rickman; NPPA’s Best Of Photojournalism Photojournalist of the Year (for smaller markets) and Pulitzer Prize-finalist Mary F. Calvert of The Washington Times; and Andrew DeVigal, multimedia editor for The New York Times.”

The First Church of Football

It’s football season. Every Friday night, all across the southern United States, brightly clad and painted hordes pile into their pickup trucks and, like moths toward flame, make their way to lighted fields in the center of some small town. Boys dressed in armor (to appear larger than they are) yell and growl encouragement at one another as other boys crash together repeatedly, fighting for the opportunity to carry an oblong brown ball past lines both real and imaginary.

How does a photographer capture this ritual? First, learn the rules. Second, learn the game. And lastly, listen to as many pros as you can.

Mission Statement

There are plenty of blogs written by and for photojournalists. This blog will distill and develop the best of that information into a valuable reference for others just getting started in the field.