A Moment of Beauty, Flocks Against the Sky
At a traffic light, I was able to fire off a picture to capture the flash of white from the underside of a flock of birds as they wheeled.
Up on the Rooftop
Lynn and I were at the Olympic Sculpture Park on Saturday during a rare weekend date when the kids were at her parents overnight, and we happened upon Heather Hart's remarkable The Western Oracle: We Will Tear the Roof off the Mother. It's a temporary exhibit in which the artist and a team built the roof and attic of a house as if it were sunk into one of the hills that makes up the park.
Visitors are invited to climb the roof, all the way to the top. There are some warnings and a volunteer stationed to monitor: no children under 10, no flip-flops or sandals (widely abused), and one climbs at one's own risk. Still many people were at the apex, with an unbelievable view of the water. One could also crouch down and walk into the "attic" and look through a window at the Puget Sound.
This
Focus, Bless You: Advice on Smartphone Photography
The wonderful Kirsten McKee, a physician and photographer in the UK who happens to be married to my friend Tom (and thus I get to also enjoy her photos on Facebook), wrote this straightforward and highly useful guide to taking reliably decent photos on a smartphone, such as the iPhone.
Kirsten shoots film (instant and developed, small and large), DSLR, and smartphone, so when she offers advice, it's across the breadth of shooting, not just one aspect or technology.
I wrote an essay called "Focus, Damn It!" aimed at freelance writers, trying to explain why a smartphone isn't typically a good choice for documentary or profile photography, because it's difficult to get the right circumstances in which an iPhone, Android, or other device truly shines. You can take great photos with a smartphone, but not all the time. The consistency is the problem.
Kirsten provides the directly complementary view about
The Photographer
Rex took this amazing picture (of yours truly) in Hawaii and I just spotted it in pulling photos together just now.
Shuttered
When I suggested a few weeks ago that journalists who write need to get decent photographic equipment as part of the process of becoming journalists who write, record audio, and shoot video, I never expected that a newspaper would lay off its entire photography staff. The Chicago Sun-Times, which has a checkered ownership history and, like most papers, dire financials after drinking cream for most of its existence, laid off 20 full-time staff photographers plus part-timers and others in the department on May 30.
The managers told the photographic staff that it would be relying more on video in the future, which is one of the weirdest arguments one could make. What they really mean is that word-based reporters will be expected to shoot pictures and video. They'll go through training in "iPhone photography basics."
In my essay, I discussed the necessity for freelance writers to become more versatile. It's
Boys and Beaches
Had a great weekend with some buddies a few weeks ago, and the weather was spectacular for photography at the beach and around.
Focus, Damn It!
The “best camera that’s with you” shouldn’t be an iPhone if you’re a modern journalist
The iPhone and similar smartphones with decent built-in cameras aren’t as good as a real camera when you’re taking photos to accompany reporting. There are times when it is the best camera — because, as Chase Jarvis’s book notes, The Best Camera Is the One That’s with You. But don’t confuse utility with quality or a stylistic statement.
I spoke not long ago with photojournalist John D. McHugh, who a few years ago received a bullet wound in Afghanistan on assignment, recovered, and still travels to war zones all over. He created Marksta, a tool for watermarking pictures taken on or loaded onto mobile phones and tablets. Despite having an array of DSLRs to choose from, McHugh says he often shoots with an iPhone because it doesn’t