Joel Sartore November 27, 2007

In my photojournalism class we talked about a freelance photographer for National Geographic named Joel Sartore.

Sartore worked on a project about the great state of Nebraska in 1996, in 1998 National Geographic published the piece.

The interesting thing about working for National Geographic, I thought, is that the photographers go first.

What I mean is that in news papers the reporter goes out and gets the story and then the photographer is told what to shoot accordingly.

At National Geographic, photographers go out and find the things to shoot.

About half way through they go to what is called a Halfway Show, where the photographer comes in and shows the editor and the rest of the team at the magazine what they have been working on and then the rest begins.

During his time in Nebraska Sartore spent about 40 percent of his time on research alone. He found teenagers working in the corn fields, demolition derbis’ and went to the Pioneer Day parade.

After his pictures were put out in the magazine National Geographic decided to make them into a book, later he had another set of pictures made into a book about endangered species.

Photoillustration – it’s coming November 20, 2007

When the word photo illustration first came up I was confused and not able to put a specific picture in my mind of what one would look like.

First thoughts looked something like a cartoon, then my brain traveled to the pictures of a toy in the corner with a lot of shadows to represent sadness in the child’s life, and then I found out what it actually is.

Photo illustration is a made picture constructed to make a point.

Sometimes story topics, such as child abuse, can be difficult to photograph so photographers set-up the scene and paint the picture for the reader without using anything real.

Another reason to use photo illustration is to make a picture of something that would be hard to capture, like people being hassled by telemarketers. Instead of frantically watching someone answer the phone and hope for an angry face you can show someone with an angry face and tons of phones around them.

Photo illustration can be subtle or blunt, it just has to get the point across.

A great tool for photo illustration is Photoshop, and I just happen to have some great tips for using it.

While taking the pictures for your layers keep light in mind, it will look pretty odd if your person has dark lighting and in the background there is no cloud to be found.

When photographing singular objects it is easier to photograph them with a white background, for cutting out the shape.

There are no ethical issues with illustration except to keep copyright in mind at all times.

Now you too know a little bit about photo illustration.

What I’ve Learned (Thus Far) November 13, 2007

I have heard and believe that education is a never ending process, where do you think the phrase “You learn something new everyday” came from. I think it is impossible to learn everything, who has that much time or even brain capacity?

Not to sound too negative, this is to be more focused on what I have learned. This semester alone has taught me to be more tech-savy than I have been, ever, in my whole life.

Soundslides has been my favorite technical discovery, well I didn’t actually discover it, but I was taught how to use it.

During my last online reporting class we discussed a research project about the formats of newspapers, the Poynter Eyetracking study. I thought all through the discussion how my local hometown paper could do so much more with their online portion of the paper, and then I realized I could be the one to help do that.

Learning about the world of online has already opened up doors for me as far as future emplyment goes and even for my schooling right now.

Soundslides has been thrown at me from every direction, classes, assignments and friends even wanting to do one. I also have learned how to use Audacity and how to map.

I am not going to lie, Excel was not something I excelled at, I had a beginning computer course when I was a freshmen in college and since that time all knowledge on the subject had disappeared, until I had to imput several numbers dealing with the Gator Nation. I was able to make a spreadsheet and calculated the numbers using Excel.

This semester has proved to be quite fruitful as far as the knowledge tree is concerned and I am excited for the coming semesters fruit to be bared or even thrown upon me.

W. Eugene Smith November 6, 2007

W. Eugene Smith was what many have called the Master of Picture Story/ Essay during the era of LIFE magazine in 1950-1970.

Smith was born in Wichita, Kansas and began his love for photojournalism at the ripe-old age of 14. It is said that Smith wanted to work so badly that he offered his services to the newspaper for free and when they turned him down he offered to pay them.

He was known for his crazed perfectionist habits in the darkroom and even more known for his love of burning and dodging. So the saying goes, “when in doubt, burn it out.”

During his time at LIFE magazine Smith worked on various photos of the war, during which time an explosion went off causing him to lose hearing, mess up his jaw and caused trouble with one of his eyes. Smith endured a two year long recovery for the injuries sustained.

After two years Eugene Smith took his first picture since the injury, the picture was that of his children walking out of a garden-type scene and into the light. The picture, The Walk to Paradise Garden, was displayed in a gallery and was recognized world-round.

Smith took time to take several more picture essay photos such as, Country Doctor, Nurse Midwife, Albert Shweitzer and most well-known Minamata.

He died shorty after taking up a teaching position, but to this day is known as a man obsessed with making the world a better place through his work.

Fairness Doctrine November 5, 2007

Law of Mass Communications seems to be more on my mind each day that our test comes closer, as a result I will be discussing the fairness doctrine.

The FCC adopted the Fairness Doctrine in two parts: station must air controversial issues and stations must allow opposing viewpoints to be heard.

In 1987, however, the Fairness Doctrine was dropped with the exception of three policies:

The Zapple Rule, Personal Attack Rule, and the Political Editorial Rule.

In 2000, the rest of the policies were dropped except for the Zapple Rule, which is where supporters of opposing candidates must be given the same paid and free time.

And that is the Fairness Doctrine in a nutshell.