Packed for success

This is one of those photos that say a thousand words.

I laughed when I saw Tyler walk into class packed as if he was going on vacation. He’s a student in my Digital PHO 1 class. I must say; he’s prepared for everything Owens has to offer! He even bought a Canon 70-200mm / f2.8 lens for the class. Now that’s what I call enthusiastic.

Tyler is among more than 200 students registered for photo classes this spring. There are now 5 digital photo 1 classes, up from the normal 2, and they’re all full at 16 students per class.

Newspapers might be smoldering (not yet dying), but the love of photography is alive and well in the student population of Northwest Ohio. Owens also offers black and white, color, studio lighting, large format and the history and theory of photography, just to name a few.

The Owens Photo Club is thriving, as well. You can keep up their many activities planned this semester on Facebook and on the web at www.owensphotoclub.org.

 

Ethics Education Needed

Ethics Lesson #2: Know thy rules, or else ye shall be judged!

A local photographer who recently made national news hopefully learned this hard lesson.

I don’t normally drop a name when it’s negative, but in this case I don’t have to protect the offender because by now every sports shooter in the country knows who Andrew is.

Freelance sports shooter Andrew Weber probably became an instant celebrity amongst his friends and family when they witnessed him on ESPN during his attempt to capture the image of the Gatorade pour over OSU coach Jim Tressel’s head at the end of the Rose Bowl.

But that act of aggressiveness put him in very hot water with his peers.

According to Mark Terrill, a photographer who witnessed the incident and vented on sportshooter.com, Weber ignored an agreed-upon rule to not set foot onto the field until the end of the game. Weber and two other photogs didn’t adhere to this rule and rushed onto the sidelines to capture the Gatorade pour.

Needless to say, Andrew, wielding his wide-angle lens, became an infamous shot blocker to many angry rule-abiding photographers.

There is something to be said about education. Young Weber might have shot lots of images in his budding career, but what he really needs is a journalism ethics college course. His exposure in Sports Illustrated will not get him very far if he continues to build his reputation for being selfish, arrogant and ethically challenged.

Hopefully it's not too late for him, but he sets a great example of what NOT to do for others. I am sad to admit that between Alan Detrich and Andrew Weber, I have plenty of local material for the ethics portion of my photography classes at Owens Community College.  

What would he learn in a journalism ethics college course? NPPA's Ethical Code, copyright laws and photographer's rights. Students are also exposed to real examples of ethical lapses, as well as ethical courage. After all, isn't that how we learn; from our own mistakes, as well as those made by others?

For a very insightful and interesting conversation on ethical behavior in the sports world, visit the sportshooter.com discussion threat on this incident.

 

Thinking Ethics

What will the newsroom look like in the future? My assessment: The newsroom will be smaller and less cohesive. Stories will be written from living room Lazy-Z-Boy chairs rather than loud, hectic newsrooms. But journalists should never forget our commitment to truth and verification, meaning we can write at home, but do our interviews and photo assignments at the actual events, using real sources. A staff law/ethical policy keeping ethical behavior in check is more important than ever now. 

It's been two months since I've blogged about anything, but not because I didn't have anything to say. I just didn't have the time to say it right. 

I've spent the past four months in my grad class learning about journalism ethics. It's a topic that is so misunderstood and underrated. I believe being ethical and knowing what that means is vital to the future of journalism. If you don't trust your news source, then who can you trust? 

Lesson # 1: The difference between bloggers and journalists is this...I don't have to blog if I don't feel like it, but a news source doesn't have that option. A reliable news source has to continually collect the facts and get them right. And if they don't get them right, then they need to admit it. That's being ethical.

The battery and the pink purse

This photo of a TV camera battery sitting on a roster next to a woman's pink purse struck me as humorous. It was at a girl's soccer game last night and I couldn't help but document the oddity of it. The owner of the purse was a reporter/photographer for Channel 11.

You see, not long ago, a woman photojournalist working on the sidelines of a sporting event was a rarity. Covering the sporting world has traditionally been a man's job. For most football, basketball, hockey, baseball games, etc., I'm still pretty much the only woman shooter there. 

I love shooting sports, being a former athlete myself, so I am often struck with the feeling that I'm lucky. I wonder if men feel the same way. Do they feel fortunate to be there, or entitled? 

I'm noticing a gradual shift in the ratio of men and women sports shooters, however. At the OSU/UT game, there were actually about 2 or 3 of us - total. Men still dominate, but hey, Rome wasn't built in a day. It's going to take women wanting and/or demanding to be there, on the field, with their male peers.

Let me share a true story that happened to me. 

When I was an intern at the Warren Tribune, I worked Sundays. An LPGA was in town one weekend, and my boss actually took me off the schedule and sent the male intern in my place. The pathetic part - he hated sports. The full-time photogs told me to go shoot it anyway, so I did. I took my own film camera with a 300mm lens (which I hand carried because I didn't own a monopod at the time), and shot the entire day. 

Know what happened? I went back to the Tribune, processed my film with the intern, and he admitted I had the better shot of the winner reacting to making her final putt. He graciously suggested I turn it in. So I did, and it ran huge on the front page. 

My pay for that day = $0.00.  My boss realizing women can shoot sports = priceless!

Jeremy the Platypus

(Photo of Jeremy Wadsworth by Dave Zapotosky)

         Blade photogs have finally turned into bonafide platypuses! 

We've been shooting video stories for our website, toledoblade.com, for a year now. All of us are equipped with Canon FS100 camcorders, the camera Jeremy is shooting with in this photo. They do the trick for a website, but I wouldn't use them for making a movie that would be blown up on a large screen. The photo department also has two Sony video cameras. We edit audio and video ourselves, using Final Cut Pro (a mac editing software). 

         The term platypus originated years ago by forward thinking photographers who knew news photogs would be delving into the world of moving images and natural sound. 

Blade photographers eased into the platypus role several years ago by first shooting Soundslides projects. Soundslides is a slideshow software that marries audio with still photos. If an assignment has video/audio potential, we video shoot it for the web. Needless to say, we can be pretty weighed down with camera equipment - doing way more for less. 

         There are times when a photographer just can't do both, though. If we're at an event that happens only once, meaning it can't be repeated, then it's better to have a still shooter as well as someone capturing audio and shooting video. Our ethical code doesn't allow us to re-shoot or set something up. That's what Jeremy's doing here, while Dave is shooting the stills. 

These multimedia skills are essential for photojournalists to find jobs these days. So get on the bandwagon!

         

To run or not to run?

David Poller started a discussion on the Wired Journalists website in regards to the New York Times running a photo of a Marine getting shot and killed in Afghanistan.  

To see the photo in question, my comment and to comment yourself, go to:

http://www.wiredjournalists.com/group/newtophotography/forum/topic/show?id=1976249%3ATopic%3A81800

What are your ethical concerns? I'd really like to know. 

Shooting the game

It's fall, meaning football season is upon us! 

These are a few photos from the Perrysburg v. Clay high school football game I shot Friday night. 

Check out more photos from the game in a photo gallery posted on the Toledo Blade website:  http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=TO&Date=20090905&Category=SPORTS12&ArtNo=905009997&Ref=PH