its a long road. long road to become a half-decent photographer. longer still to becoming a good news photographer. don't believe me? take just one news photo class.
that buzzing you hear is my head spinning. i was fortunate enough to sit in one a one day seminar for news photography in new york. the professor was john smock.
some of his work.
(yeah, he's pretty good.)interestingly, smock started out as a reporter before going full time photog. and he was able to use the skills from reporting and working a beat in photography.
smock mentioned how different photography and journalism is than when he first started. and while the current professionals have had to adapt faster than any previous generation, the industry has always been in flux. which makes sense. as an industry that seeks to most accurately represent and report on the current times, its logical to assume that business would have to change and adapt as the people do.
one big way people (specifically news consumers) have changed is how visually literate we are now. i'd imagine it has something to do with the influx of images we get from the time we get up to the time we go to bed. so the challenge is creating an interesting image that'll grab someone's attention for three seconds.
smock went into some of the technical bits about the camera. having taken a film photography class (to varying levels of success) i have some idea of the shutter speed/iso puzzle. that being said, my beginner's grasp of it means jack squat if i dont know how to set the iso on the camera. with that under control, next step is the 'chimping'. that's photog speak for checking the images on the camera. (because the elbows-in, head-down pose resembles a chimp. get it?)
in addition to tips on what editors look for, taking the best picture, and the components of an audio slideshow, smock gave us words of encouragement. editors, he said, are looking for young people who can think in visuals and have the skills to produce those ideas.
its a long road, but worth it.
1 comment:
I'm all finished with grad school apps save for a couple essays for BU, which I'll finish and send off this week. Not sure if I'll go even if I get in, but it's an option. Plus I never said I'd be laying around post-grad, just living. Which is probably the opposite, if ya think about it.
And I'll take Tiger and his hissy fits over a grateful-to-be-second Mickelson any day.
Hope you are well and had a nice holiday. Perhaps we'll see you around the U this spring?
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