The Year in Pictures: Stormy Weather: “Extreme weather is a category of photography we don’t think much about here in New York City, but it has its fans, publishers, and practitioners just like any other genre. Top amongst these is probably Jim Reed, a 56 year old former writer and film-maker who moved from Los Angeles to Wichita, Kansas 16 years ago in order to be
near the strongest hurricanes and tornadoes in the country.”
Gang Leader for a Day – Sudhir Venkatesh – Book Review – New York Times: “On a hot summer day in 1989, Sudhir Venkatesh, a callow sociology student with a ponytail and tie-dyed T-shirt, walked into one of Chicago’s toughest housing projects, clipboard in hand, ready to ask residents about their lives. Sample question: ‘How does it feel to be black and poor?’ Suggested answers: ‘very bad, somewhat bad, neither bad nor good, somewhat good, very good.’ Actual answers: unprintable.
Mr. Venkatesh got rid of the clipboard and the questionnaire, but not his fascination with life in the Chicago housing projects. He stuck around, befriended a gang leader and for the next decade lived a curious insider-outsider life at the notorious Robert Taylor Homes on the city’s South Side, an eye-opening experience he documents in the high-octane ‘Gang Leader for a Day.’
In a bit of bravado Mr. Venkatesh, who now teaches at Columbia, styles himself a ‘rogue sociologist.’ Dissatisfied with opinion surveys and statistical analysis as ways to describe the life of the poor, he reverted to the methods of his predecessors at the University of Chicago, who took an ethnographic approach to the study of hobos, hustlers and politicians. Much like a journalist, he observed, asked questions and drew conclusions as he accumulated raw data.”
CLAM$ CA$INO: I’m loaded, don’t know where to point this thing.: “from pr to bk Clam$ CaSino brings the fishiest flicks
from the first half of the first month of oh eight. ah ite?”
dustin franz photography: leisa.: “leisa came to visit me this week. it was very exciting and i wish she didnt have to leave.”
(Via A Visual Journey.)
The Passion of Steve Jobs – Bits – Technology – New York Times Blog: “Even more than when he’s performing on stage, Steven P. Jobs’s passion for personal computing comes through when he talks about the years he spent cajoling his designers to build what he presented today as the world’s ‘thinnest’ computer.
Along with David Pogue, the Times technology columnist, I spent a half-hour with Mr. Jobs after he introduced the MacBook Air this morning at the Macworld Expo. And as is frequently the case with Apple products, he pronounced the three-pound aluminum-clad portable to be one of the best things his company has ever designed.
‘I’m going to be the first one in line to buy one of these,’ he said. ‘I’ve been lusting after this.’”
Smithsonian Magazine | Arts & Culture | Danger Zones: “David Maisel doesn’t consider himself an environmental activist. Yet his large-scale aerial photographs of strip mines, a bone-dry lake bed and man-made evaporation ponds can be viewed as indictments of our indifference to the planet that sustains us. Once you figure them out, that is. The photographs call to mind everything from blood vessels to stained-glass windows. ‘They might be mirrors into who we are as a society and who we are in our psyches,’ Maisel says.”
(Via Boing Boing.)
Pacifica Tribune Online – Through the lens of the camera: “‘First time I went out, I took pictures at the beach and came back with really good pictures. I hit it off from the very first time. I never pictured myself as a photographer until I got my camera and people told me I was good. It went from there,’ he said,
Now Hudson, 15, a sophomore at Terra Nova High School, plans to pursue a career in photojournalism.”
State of the Art: Marilyn Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: “The law firm of Loeb & Loeb didn’t waste any time in striking back at the heirs of photographers who once photographed Marilyn Monroe.
Loeb & Loeb represents the company called Marilyn Monroe LLC, which over the past couple of decades has claimed ownership of the late actress’s ‘rights of publicity.’”
Apple Unveils Movie Rentals and Thin Notebook – New York Times: “Mr. Jobs also announced a new version of Apple TV that does not require a cable for users to play movies from iTunes directly on the television.”
RRD Photo: Photoshop “Revisit and Retouch” Challenge #1: “Ryan Goodman took this photograph a few years ago in Grand Cayman and produced a nice image (after some editing) which you can see on his site.
Interested to see what other folks would do to this in the digital darkroom, he’s inviting those interested to download the RAW files and give it their best shot.
In this post…
In this post I’ll give a detailed look at my steps for completing this retouch and at the end I’ll link to some books and podcasts that will help teach you these techniques in more detail.”
House kicks up an investigation : Updates : The Rocky Mountain News: “By resolution, the House said: ‘The special committee will investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident that occurred between Rep. Douglas Bruce and a member of the press on the floor of the House of Representatives on Jan. 14, 2008.’
House Republicans on Monday had condemned Bruce for kicking the photographer and promised a tight rein on their new colleague to ensure such an outburst ‘never happens again.’”
From the first day to now, a Sense of Community – Sense of Community – Flint Journal: “Steve Jessmore,48, has created the Sense of Community photo column since April 2004. After more than 170 columns, today marks its end. Jessmore is leaving The Flint Journal to become photo editor at The Sun News in Myrtle Beach, S.C. ”
(Via APAD.)
…fredman eyes the visions…: Tefillin: “I finally edited this project, which I shot when I was interning at the Star-Ledger, I hoped to finish it while working there, but things ended and I didn’t have a chance to edit it during my final week. I learned a few important lessons — don’t gather too much audio and start editing audio quickly as you gather it, otherwise it becomes harder and harder to get around to it and finish the job. “
A Photo Editor – Photography Agent Websites: “My new favorite agent website belongs to Deborah Schwartz (here)–actually I should credit Bill Charles for being an early adopter of the idea . The first page lists the names of the people they represent and when you roll over the name a photo that represents that photographers work appears. Brilliant. Simple. Most of the time, when I’m out trolling agent websites, it’s because I ran out of ideas or I kinda remember a photographer but have no idea what their name is so, being able to flash through a bunch of photographers quickly is awesome.”
In Persian Gulf Incident, Some Suspect Hecklers – washingtonpost.com: “The Navy has a monkey on its back.
Since at least 1982, U.S. Navy ships plying the Persian Gulf have been taunted by mysterious radio transmissions that are alternately obscene, nonsensical, racist, infantile, misogynistic and menacing. Sometimes they threatened U.S. ships; at other times they simply babbled away, all night, in falsettos.”
Drobo Creators Launch DroboShare: “With DroboShare, users can now access the information stored on the award-winning Drobo from any client on the network, including Windows, Apple or Linux computers, as well as other networked devices like Home Media Centers. And unlike other NAS desktop storage devices the Drobo and DroboShare solution embraces ease of use and flexibility by being the first NAS solution that supports all major file systems (NTFS, HFS+, EXT3, FAT32). Additionally, Drobo has the flexibility to be easily disconnected from DroboShare and then connected directly to a host computer as required.”
Gray Matters: Don’t burn your bridges.: “One of my more gregarious coworkers started what can only be characterized as a rant. He talked about his belief that newspapers are a vital part of our democracy. He talked about how we have strayed from our mission, chasing after every shiny object that comes our way. He talked about how it seemed the industry was afraid to stay the course. He talked about how we need to find out how to monetize our product on the Internet. He talked about how newspaper people were different. We have a mission he said. We love what we do. We would do it for less if we thought it would help. We would stand in the rain, snow, sleet or heat if we thought it would help the story. “
Best Seat in the House | The Seattle Times, Rod Mar: “I had such a blast at what ended up as the final Seahawks game of the season.
Snow, the playoffs, a natural grass field, and Green Bay’s legendary Lambeau Field all made for an incredible environment in which to shoot photos.
As many of you know, Seattle got run over by the Green Bay Packers, 42-20.
And as the old cliche’ goes, ‘the game wasn’t as close as the score indicated’.”
family/friends: bosses: “i do not have a boss anymore….i never did like having a boss, but i pretty much always got along with them anyway….respect…authority….needed a job…..
you are looking at my first two bosses…in reverse order….Robert E. Gilka, left, former Director of Photography at National Geographic Magazine and Rich Clarkson, former Director of Photography at the Topeka (Kansas) Capitol-Journal…Clarkson hired me for the newspaper right out of the University of Missouri graduate school and Gilka hired me 7 long long long years later at National Geographic….”
The F STOP » Professional Photographers Discuss Their Craft » Article Archive » Jono Rotman: “The ad agency, Clemenger BBDO, hired photographer Jono Rotman to help them promote New Zealand’s policy of providing free, universal healthcare. Their concept was quite simple—an image of nude bodies arranged to form the shape of the island nation.”