Just arrived on Roslyn Heights, NY, which is located on Long Island. I've been looking around for work and will continue to do so for the next few weeks. My goal is to find a job in the world of photography soon.
In the meantime I just posted some photos from a little sightseeing tour my girlfriend Ania and I went on yesterday. These aren't portfolio pieces, just some vacation photography.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Monday, June 11, 2007
"The Zipper" on PhotoSIG
I posted my image of a ferris wheel on PhotoSIG today. Click here to see it and give it a critique. PhotoSIG is a great site for posting imagery and getting it critiqued, or if you want to critique imagery yourself. I encourage any photographer, professional or enthusiast, to publish their photos to this site.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Can I Get a Witness
Hundreds of Jehovah Witnesses were out and about on June 9, 2007, working together to construct a new congregation in Jacksonville, N.C. Members of the church from the North Carolina, West Virginia and Virginia areas came out to help put together the church in a two week period which started on Wednesday, June 6. Age and experience weren't factors as members ranged in age from 16-76, and many had little to no prior construction experience. The group was also made up of diverse set of races including white, black, Hispanic and Asian. Every person working on the project volunteered their time.
The new congregation is designed to serve both the English and Spanish speaking community. The building will have two libraries, one English, one Spanish, along with two services, one English, one Spanish. The completely volunteer force will complete the Kingdom Hall by June 17, and it will be ready for use by late July or early August. One factor holding up use of the building are chairs, which will not arrive until early to mid-July.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Photo Credibility
I am a photojournalist. As a photojournalist I maintain the highest level of integrity when I take photos of my subjects. Unless I'm photographing a model in the studio, or a portrait, I do not manipulate my subject or environment. I do not manipulate my images in unethical ways. I do color correct, crop and tone my images to give them the highest impact, but I do not delete anything or add anything that isn't in the picture. I, along with every other photojournalist in the field, am taught to maintain this high level photographic integrity. Unfortunatly there are those in the field who don't maintain their integrity and they unfortunately make it harder for the rest of us.
I bring this up because I talked to anther photojournalist friend of mine who told me that he wanted to make a statement on his website which basically read like the statement I made above. I asked him why would he do that, why would he feel he needs to state what is basically a given for people in our field. Dishonest photographers are the exception, but there are always going to be these people in are field. These people are always going to be there but they are the exception, not the rule, and I do not feel that any photographer has to state that they are an "honest" photographer, and that they do not manipulate their images.
Why? The ethos of photojournalists are that we don't manipulate our imagery, and this should be understood by all who view images. By stating this in a mission statement the photographer sets themselves up as an exception to other photographers. By standing up and saying "I do not manipulate images," you are basically saying that every other photographer is an image manipulator. No genuine photojournalist who adopts the tenants of a photojournalist should have to tell anyone what should be understood.
Also in the news profession there have been quite a few reports of reporters who faked stories, or just made up facts. Have you ever heard any reporter telling their readership that they are dishonest. No. They don't because people understand that these manipulators and dishonest people are the exception not the rule. As long as we identify these people and make them a public specticle then we as a bringers of the truth will be admonished of the wrongdoings of others.
I bring this up because I talked to anther photojournalist friend of mine who told me that he wanted to make a statement on his website which basically read like the statement I made above. I asked him why would he do that, why would he feel he needs to state what is basically a given for people in our field. Dishonest photographers are the exception, but there are always going to be these people in are field. These people are always going to be there but they are the exception, not the rule, and I do not feel that any photographer has to state that they are an "honest" photographer, and that they do not manipulate their images.
Why? The ethos of photojournalists are that we don't manipulate our imagery, and this should be understood by all who view images. By stating this in a mission statement the photographer sets themselves up as an exception to other photographers. By standing up and saying "I do not manipulate images," you are basically saying that every other photographer is an image manipulator. No genuine photojournalist who adopts the tenants of a photojournalist should have to tell anyone what should be understood.
Also in the news profession there have been quite a few reports of reporters who faked stories, or just made up facts. Have you ever heard any reporter telling their readership that they are dishonest. No. They don't because people understand that these manipulators and dishonest people are the exception not the rule. As long as we identify these people and make them a public specticle then we as a bringers of the truth will be admonished of the wrongdoings of others.
Monday, June 4, 2007
Workshop: The Musical
The Eddie Adams photography workshop known as Barnstorm is one of the most prestigious and well known photography workshops in the U.S. It is currently in its 20th year of nurturing the talents of young photographers in upstate New York, and a recent YouTube browse found this little gem from Barnstorm XIX. Workshop: The Musical is a little gem which encapsulates all the feelings and emotions related to first trying to get into the workshop, and then the actual experience of the workshop. There are six parts to the musical and you can see them here.
Starting Today
Starting today I will be working to create a completely new portfolio. The portfolio I currently use is culled from nearly 8 years of photographic work. I spent the nearly my entire weekend+ pouring over my photography to come up with the photos in that portfolio, and I can say one thing conclusively, I am sick and tired of looking at all those old photos. So my plan, as of today, is to completely revitalize and revamp my portfolio by this time next year. Every single photograph in my portfolio next year will be completly new. One thing that won't change are my photo stories, this is because they are important to me and have a significance far greater then just the photos themselves. So stay tuned to my website will see what I can come up with by this time next year.
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Shooting Raw
I used to always shoot in JPEG format. The way I saw it, why would I want to deal with RAW when JPEG works just as well and can be edited in Photoshop easily. In addition JPEG gave me more the ability to take more photos. Also in the beginning when dealing with RAW it was a pain because each image had to be opened and edited and resaved before anything could be done with the image. It wasn't until Photoshop created their RAW utility that shooting in RAW became a quick process, even faster then shooting with JPEG.
When I shot in JPEG I'd save my images, then make my selects, then open each image and edit them individually in Photoshop. This process worked fine until I discovered RAW editing utility in Photoshop CS 2. With this utility I can shoot in RAW, preview and make selects in Adobes great preview application Bridge, and open all my selects at once. Photoshop places all the selects together in one dialog box and I can go through each image making all my color correction edits I can think of. I can also crop and fix tilted images as well. It's really great, and when I've made all my corrections to each of my images, which can be done in a few minutes, I let the application convert my edited images to JPEG format. In addition to saving my images the application also can be used to rename my images to my specifications.
At this point I have my archival imagery saved, and I have my selects ready to use transmit or publish. So now I only shoot in RAW format.
When I shot in JPEG I'd save my images, then make my selects, then open each image and edit them individually in Photoshop. This process worked fine until I discovered RAW editing utility in Photoshop CS 2. With this utility I can shoot in RAW, preview and make selects in Adobes great preview application Bridge, and open all my selects at once. Photoshop places all the selects together in one dialog box and I can go through each image making all my color correction edits I can think of. I can also crop and fix tilted images as well. It's really great, and when I've made all my corrections to each of my images, which can be done in a few minutes, I let the application convert my edited images to JPEG format. In addition to saving my images the application also can be used to rename my images to my specifications.
At this point I have my archival imagery saved, and I have my selects ready to use transmit or publish. So now I only shoot in RAW format.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
File naming conventions
I've been going through my archive of 8 years of photography and I'm coming to the realization that file naming is very important to the archiving process. It's good to set up a system early on otherwise you'll just be doing more work in the future. In the military, combat photographers, videographers and illustrators use a system known as Visual Information Record Identification Number (VIRIN) to label their photos, videos or illustrations. A VIRIN is made of an assortment of information which help an organization as large as the military keep track of who created what. Here is an example VIRIN:
070401-M-0948M-001
The first six numbers are the date, in year, month, day format. The letter M represent the service I'm in, in the case the M stand for the Marines. The four numbers and the letter represent the last four numbers of my social security number and the first letter in my last name. And the the last three numbers represent the number of the image. The last four of the social and first letter of the last name are essential in identifying who took the picture.
This system works great in the military where you have hundreds of photographers, videographers and graphic illustrators all contributing their work to a cohesive whole. While the meta data and caption information also hold ownership information, the VIRIN allows for quick visual identification of ownership.
In my personal work the VIRIN is both unnecessary and inefficient. Because all the work I produce comes from me and is captioned and identified with my name in the meta data, I don't need to brand the file names with my social. Also because the imagery I produce in my own time with my own equipment is mine, I don't associate it with the military . So for my personal imagery I use this file naming convention:
2007_05_28_001_Memorial Day Observance_Wilmington NC
The first part of the file name is the date, it is a simple year, month, day format, but I have chosen to use the full four number year format. Also I chose to use underscores to separate information because I find it easier to read then by bunching all the information together. I don't know if I'll still be taking pictures in the year 2100, or whether I'll still even be alive, but at least with a four number year I won't have to worry about which century my photographs are from. Next I have the sequence number, followed by the event title, and the place. The last two are optional and can even be replaced with something completely different, but I try to choose something which can identify the shoot, even if different subjects are photographed over the course of a day.
When scanning years of photography this naming convention allows me to find certain photos much more quickly then by simple date naming. Also, by using this naming convention I can use any computer to scan through my files to find something. I don't have to rely on specific software which organizes photos.
070401-M-0948M-001
The first six numbers are the date, in year, month, day format. The letter M represent the service I'm in, in the case the M stand for the Marines. The four numbers and the letter represent the last four numbers of my social security number and the first letter in my last name. And the the last three numbers represent the number of the image. The last four of the social and first letter of the last name are essential in identifying who took the picture.
This system works great in the military where you have hundreds of photographers, videographers and graphic illustrators all contributing their work to a cohesive whole. While the meta data and caption information also hold ownership information, the VIRIN allows for quick visual identification of ownership.
In my personal work the VIRIN is both unnecessary and inefficient. Because all the work I produce comes from me and is captioned and identified with my name in the meta data, I don't need to brand the file names with my social. Also because the imagery I produce in my own time with my own equipment is mine, I don't associate it with the military . So for my personal imagery I use this file naming convention:
2007_05_28_001_Memorial Day Observance_Wilmington NC
The first part of the file name is the date, it is a simple year, month, day format, but I have chosen to use the full four number year format. Also I chose to use underscores to separate information because I find it easier to read then by bunching all the information together. I don't know if I'll still be taking pictures in the year 2100, or whether I'll still even be alive, but at least with a four number year I won't have to worry about which century my photographs are from. Next I have the sequence number, followed by the event title, and the place. The last two are optional and can even be replaced with something completely different, but I try to choose something which can identify the shoot, even if different subjects are photographed over the course of a day.
When scanning years of photography this naming convention allows me to find certain photos much more quickly then by simple date naming. Also, by using this naming convention I can use any computer to scan through my files to find something. I don't have to rely on specific software which organizes photos.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
