A Small Rant?

For the past few decades there has been a race to modernize the news – more platforms, faster availability, galleries, and videos with every photograph taken. Everyone has aimed to take the next step to get more media to more people but there has been an inherent lack of modernization of the newsroom itself. With antiquated systems, gear decades old and newsroom ideas and approaches from the 1980s there is a disconnect between what newsrooms want to produce and what newsrooms are.

The old saying you are product of your environment holds true to organizations, staff and content as well as it does an individual person. The lack of progression in the environment of a newsroom itself is holding the progress of the actual news and delivery back. Working in the confines of an antiquated building with cabinets full of papers untouched for decades puts a dampener on creativity and forward thinking. The cluttered and outdated desks of editors forces a digression in progress from up and coming news visionaries. What is the purpose of modernizing the way news is delivered and shared if we cannot modernize the way we work and think.

The force from higher authorities to streamline news production and force deadlines on people using technology over a decade old hinders the progression and creativity ability of journalists and media producers alike. The do more with less and the “this is how it was done before” attitude from the newsroom limits the actual growth of the industry itself. What is the point of trying to excel and modernize the news when you leave the newsroom producing it in the dark ages.

With the introduction and evolution of social media and apps there has been a gradual adoption and integration into news and media platforms. It seems there is a disconnect between the social media concept and evolving newsrooms. The lack of the social aspect in social media is the main hindrance facing the growth of news media in social applications in the modern age. Newsrooms are focused on all these new and fancy apps and programs but use the traditional newsroom thought process to power them. Newsrooms may have a single entity controlling an account where an entire team should have access to post articles, updates and behind the scenes content to keep the newsroom connected to the community they are serving. Just starting multiple social media accounts and posting links and dry captions that direct to your web page is not social. It is a cobweb approach to suck in a reader or two for your analytics for the day. Social media should be used as a social avenue with content producers and the community of subscribers. It should be used to build connections leapfrog ideas and find stories, not a one way message system to re-post the same links to day after day.

With the large shift to digital news delivery there has been a lack of digital back-end integration in news rooms for editing and production. Phones, tablets, smart watches and computers are the leading edge of the news delivery market, yet reports, budgets and copy is all still analog. If the digitization of news delivery and adaption new technology to reach a large audience is so groundbreaking, why is it not implemented in the newsroom. For the digital news to be delivered staff has to rely on vintage methods to produce it. Current newsrooms are coal engines powering sports cars.

With the advent of digital outlets and the speed news has to hit consumers there has been a disconnect with the roots of journalism itself. Just skimming the surface, a set of Cliffs Notes on the topic and onto the next story. There has been an erosion of journalism itself because of the pursuit of being first in digital media. Although it has been a race to digitization to stay relevant and some cases afloat there is a point when you lose a part of journalism that was at your core and need to reel it back into the newsroom. The people factor, the community the things that make the area tick. There is no one diving deep into real issues anymore, covering the situation but not the cause, the why and the deeper reasons and story. That is what journalism used to be digging to the reason, holding people accountable and all it is now is ad revenue and catch headlines.

With the push for modernization of the delivery of news it seems many publications are still stuck on a newspaper time delivery. Why release the news when you feel like it rather than when it is happening. The thought to modernize the news is being held back by almost archaic habits. Until we truly modernize the entire thought of news and modernizing the delivery of it we will continue to struggle.

Year End

I moved to Arkansas to start my staff position at the Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock in July. I have never been big on year end posts but my buddy Jimmy egged me to make one. I really didn’t shoot much in the first half of the year before my move, so this post is both a year end and 6 month post for my move to Arkansas.

The End of Turner

Since 1997 the Atlanta Braves have called Turner field their home but this past Sunday the Braves played their last game there against the Detroit Tigers. In the past 19 years that the Braves have been at Turner field it has been home to:
11 NLDS, 4 NLCS, 1 WS, 1 all star game, and 1 NL Wild Card Game – the first in MLB history.

As a born and raised Braves fan I still remember sitting in the general admission seats with my father and grandfather at my first game around 1998 watching Chipper Jones in my ratty baseball cap. All I wanted was for Chipper to foul one out to me (it has yet to happen).

Turner Field has been an focal point of Braves history since it was transformed in 1997 from the Centennial Olympic Stadium to what we know it today. 

I decided I wanted to document one of the last games a little different, with period correct Fuji Super G film. I loaded up my F5 and threw on a little 50 – this is what I got:

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Sex, Drugs and EDM

People always hear EDM festivals and seem to miss the point of the festival part. These migrations of EDM lovers is not just about the music, it is about the atmosphere. I have been to many music festivals but the ones that focus around EDM always have the most outgoing crowd. Other festivals’ participants love the music, these people love their lifestyle.

Here is a look inside a lifestyle – Imagine Music Festival

 

Look Back On My Internship

I’ll start off first by saying I am a true gear nut. Like most students my age, I keep up with all the rumors all the time; this trait of mine set up some comedy in the photo room on my first day as the photo intern at the Northwest Florida Daily News.

I talked to Daily staff photographer Nick Tomecek a few times while I was shooting some events for my school. I talked him into letting me tag along with him on a few assignments to pick his brain, and after one or two of these ride-alongs, I asked about an internship. A few weeks and packets of paper later, I had an intern spot working three days a week at the Daily News.

I come in on my first day and ask about gear. They open up their locker, and to my dismay, beams of glorious golden light do not flood out. I am introduced to my D2h (no battery door included). There’s a plethora of 17-35’s to choose from, but they’re mostly sluggish or broken. Sadly, there are only two working 70-200’s that the full-time staffers used. So I’m stuck shooting wide this summer. This is a long way away from my D3 and 28-70 I’m used to. But hey, it builds character, right?

After I get used to the archaic body and tinker with the white balance to take the muddiness out of the 4mp images, Nick asks if I have swim trunks with me. I didn’t, but he thoughtfully loaned me an extra pair.

Lesson one: Always have a pair of trunks and towel handy. I think he planned this, but my first shoot as an intern I was sitting in knee-deep water shooting at the beach in Destin, FLA. We’re covering a new watercraft that was just imported into the country. I think I’m in love.

The next day I was shooting headshots of candidates for county commissioner at some podunk city forum. This is where I learned the second lesson of the summer: the D2h is only good to about ISO 800, and you have to keep a broken 300 very steady to get a clean shot at 1/15.

Going from the beach shooting some exotic watercraft to shooting a debate the next day is why I want to do this for a living. I know there are not many no jobs in the industry, but I don’t think I’m capable of living behind a desk or counter for the rest of my life. I would rather take a measly salary and love my job than dread coming in every day.

Digging through the gear locker became a morning routine. I ended up fixing a 17-35 and a 16-35 after a few tries. I don’t think I’ve been happier about autofocus in my life. At this point I’m starting to like my taped up kit; the files are super easy to work with. A few of my images from my first day ran Sunday on 1A, surprising they came from a D2h. As it turned out, the image got pushed to the Associated Press, and it ran on Forbes and a few other news sites. Lesson three: Gear doesn’t matter, just shoot.

After the first week, I have the newspaper’s workflow down pretty well. They have some weird things going on with how they send captions and images for print. It takes a bit to get it, but turns out to be pretty simple.

I made a few notes to help remember what three copies of what images go where, and I realized I needed to start taking more notes. Putting stuff in my head wasn’t going to work out. So I started to carry a pen and pad everywhere. This is where I leaned lesson three: Don’t forget to unclick your pen.

Down here in the Florida Panhandle, we are a military community. Both of my parents are military. It is a way of life that is hard to experience anywhere in the civilian world. We have at least four bases within half an hour of the paper, and five or six within an hour.

With this concentration of government activities in our area, we receive a great deal of invites to cover military stories. I checked the schedule in the morning and I was on the list to cover a newly built Fisher House on the local base and the family living there. I had no clue what I was in for. I met the PR person at the gate and the reporter and I were driven to the Fisher House next to the hospital. We were given a quick tour, and then introduced to the mother of the family that we were interviewing.

As the intern, I think the guys like to randomly take me along for rides. On my assignment sheets I really never get any precise information, just when, where and that’s usually it. I think they know, but don’t tell me because I’m the new guy around. They haven’t admitted to it yet though. Nothing new on this assignment either.

After the reporter talked to the mother, I found out her husband is a member of the Army EOD. He lost both eyes and was rattled real bad in the sandbox back in December when an IED went off in his face while he was trying to disarm it. She told us his story for a while; I shot a few frames here and there. There was really nothing I could work with at that moment.

About 30 minutes in, she mentioned she needs to pick up her husband at the EOD school house; he needed a ride home from work. I was pretty anxious at this point -I had no clue how to cover this! He arrived, everyone was introduced, and his wife helps him sit down.

Photo by Jeff Gammons
So I am sitting there while he and his wife recount all the events from his accident up until that point sitting in the foyer at the fisher house. I don’t think I took a picture for about an hour while listening to their story. I was just so amazed at what their family had gone through. I snapped out of my trance and realized I still had no real keepers. Worried, I snapped a few from where I was sitting then stood up and snapped a few more. A few minutes after shooting those few frames, the reporter had the story we needed. We thanked them for their time and his service. It was really eye opening to encounter someone who gave so much and was just thankful to be alive and have his family. Once again I found myself in a moment thinking this is why I love this. I get to show peoples stories, I get to show people what they don’t see on their drive to work or in the line at Starbucks.

While sitting back in the photo dungeon at the paper going through the whole whopping five or six images, I pick one, edit the slug, and transmit it for print. I file the rest and just sit and think of what I could have done better. Lo and behold, they run my shot on 1A above the fold.

Over the next few weeks I get to drive out and shoot a few small stories and a wreck here and there. Some guy fell off some scaffolding, and I was able to make it to the scene before he was flown off to the hospital. Nothing big – just a few rollovers and things of that sort, mostly tourists not paying attention on the road. Then we get a lead on a wacky story.

Apparently a local veterinarian is housing a baby emu. Said emu ran away, and followed a neighborhood man into his house. The story spread through town like wildfire, and somehow I got picked to go shoot take pictures of this emu. I show up and decided to grab some video.

I decided to throw a lav on the owner while the reporter got the story and shot some b-roll of the emu and its actual children. I snapped some stills in-between for a slideshow. I realized how nice it is to be able to be able to shoot video on a DSLR. I’m so glad I don’t have to carry around another camera for video. After the emu shenanigans, I headed back to the office, made the slideshow real quick, and started to work on the video. In hindsight I could have done a bunch of things better, and it was an awesome learning experience.

Overall, my time at the paper was a pure blast. I became true friends with the photographers, and still keep in touch with them regularly. In this day and age it is all about who you know, rather than just what you know. It’s crazy how much I learned from just shooting in my weeks at the paper No book or itchy polo could have taught me the things I know now. I am allowed to make fun of his polo, I was teasing him when he bought it.

First Assignment with Getty: More Tape.

I was sweating bullets the entire time.

Made all my deadlines, and no issues with my IPTC… Besides the fact that “FSU” in my keywords on Photo Mechanic was changed to “Former Soviet Union” when it went live online.

As you can see though, my remote was a tad….. “off”. I had it set before the game and all taped, hopefully it wasn’t knocked or anything when I went back to the work room? I may need to add more gaff next time, but I don’t know what could have helped….

Anywho, here is a small set. Hopefully I can get to shoot some more for them in the new year (with in focus pictures).

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Friday Night Lights, Politics, and Portraits

So this last week was rather busy.

Here are some snaps from some HS football, a Huckabee rally, and a portrait session with a friend.

Miami at GT

Soooooo this weekend was killer.

I assisted Dustin Snipes in Georgia for a shoot that I really can’t talk about until the image is published. I guess ill leave that for another post.

Anywho, I assisted AL Diaz of the Miami Herald this weekend, shooting the GT Miami game in Atlanta.

Check out Al’s blog here: http://aldiazphoto.blogspot.com/

Look out for an upcoming contest, i hear he is giving away some pretty good stuff in October………

I learned quite a bit over the day and solidified that I really do like bigger cities. I also reaffirmed my hatred for turf fields and their pesky rubber shreds that just get everywhere imaginable.

I’ll shut up now and post the shots…

Catch Light

Man, I have neglected this, even with it on my favorites bar… I need to fix this bad habit.

So I decided to make a catch light with no plans at all. I decided to keep it under $100, and ended up spending something like 72.

I went to Home Depot one evening and bought a piece of 12x12x2 laminated plywood, 4 14″ florescent tubes, pack of L brackets and some screws.

After grabbing my compass, ruler and protractor from my old drafting class. Made a few measurements and started sketching points.

I bent the L brackets to about 120* and attached them to the back mounts on the tubes, then attached them to the square board.

This is what it looked like the first night. I also found out the vega mini works perfect with it.

After I found out it worked well and was stable I busted out the jig saw and drill to finish her up. This is what she looks like now.

This is what it makes >>>>>>>>>>>
full res: http://85zero.zenfolio.com/img/s4/v64/p1096883932.jpg

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GSC Tournament

Had a long weekend shooting the GSC Basketball Tournament held at “The Arena”

Pretty big post, don’t hurt yourself scrolling.