Photojournalism

I’ve shot for both daily and weekly newspapers, each has it’s own demands but of course are very much alike.

I originally shot for my hometown weekly newspaper while still in high school, this was pretty “lo-key” as far as assignments and deadlines went, as you can imagine. This mostly involved shooting local functions with a few interesting possibilities. One that I remember most was covering the opening day of the New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia. At the time it was completed on October 22, 1977, it was the largest arch bridge in the world. Now it’s the third largest, currently ranked behind two bridges in China.

This was my first real photography job.

My next job was for a weekly entertainment paper in North Carolina. Today, these are pretty commonplace now and almost every city has one or even two versions available (Portland has two). But at the time that I shot for this weekly (late 80’s) this was something new, a FREE paper that had articles about everything from serious issues, music reviews and openings and restaurant reviews. This concept was pretty groundbreaking for that area and time (the original idea came from NYC). I was given assignments to shoot photos for the cover and to illustrate many of the articles. It was interesting and introduced me to people and places that I may not have encountered otherwise.

This is one of the great things about photography and it’s true regardless of what your chosen discipline is…photography opens doors (both literally and figuratively) giving he photographer access to view people and situations that you may have otherwise never known.

My last journalism job was as a “stringer” for a daily newspaper in North Carolina. For those not familiar with the term, it’s means a part-time photographer or writer. Again, I was given assignments to shoot various images. Most were because the normal staff photographers weren’t available to cover the assignment or it was a late breaking incident. I shot a lot of sports and “filler” photos for the Sunday edition. I also got access to photograph on the set one of the many movies that was filmed locally. The movie was given a featured article, which showcased quite a few of my images.

News photography was exciting and interesting and it was a learning experience. You had to have command and control of your equipment, because there were no second chances. It also taught me never to be late and to never ever, return without a photo.

I’m a better photographer for having had the chance to shoot for the publications that I did and I admire the photographers who do this on a daily basis.

DCF

Comments

Equine Photography

Some musings on some of the more interesting things that I've photographed. After I graduated from the university with my photography degree, I went on to a dedicated photography school for a more technical, in depth training. After getting these two degrees in photography, I really needed to work. Preferably in my chosen field as a photographer. So as luck would have it, I was offered a job in the great state of Ohio photographing horses. Now I grew up on a farm in West Virginia and my brother owned horses, so I was familiar with them but I wouldn’t say that I loved horses or had any desire to be around them for any length of time (memories of being on a run away horse comes to mind). But again, I needed a job, this was photography and it seemed interesting – so I took it. I moved to Ohio and started working for a photographer who specialized in photographing horses. I traveled throughout the state shooting every horse show, harness race and rodeo that I could fit into my s...

Portraiture

So here's another post about what I used to photograph, this one's about portraiture. I was trained in "classic" portrait photography. Studio photography was all about the main light, the fill light and the hair light. Photographers needed to know the effects of light and how to control it. Poses consisted of a full, three quarter and profile views. This was the basics, what you had to know, what you should know to do your job. You need to know the rules before can successfully break them. Note that the examples that I show here are not so static and are more relaxed examples. In my opinion, the main thing to learn about portraiture is how you deal with the subject of the photograph; successful photographers know how to get the best out of the people that they’re shooting, all in the short period of time that they have available. Initially that was my problem, when I first started shooting portraits I was never too comfortable one-on-one in what was basically a cont...

After you've mastered your craft, your art and have the necessary skills, the next step should be: What am I trying to say? In my opinion, this is the measure of an artist and can be applied to any artistic discipline. If I'm really successful, when viewing my images, you'll feel what I wanted you to feel. At the very least, you should feel something: joy, excitement, interest, fear or even disgust. If there's no response, then I haven't accomplished what I set out to do. Even if I'm shooting for my own enjoyment, my goal is to still convey a message or a feeling; the very essence that drew me to want to take or make the image in the first place. When I do commercial photography, I'm paid to get the client's point across, again this is the sole point of taking the image. Shooting my personal work allows me to get my "message" out there and although this may sometimes seem like an egotistic pursuit, it's really the only reason to "cha...

INNERFRAME UNLIMITED LLC.

Search This Blog