Half Sigma: Meghan McCain’s photographer sucks: “The first thing that hits me when I look at Meghan McCain’s ‘Blogette’ is that the photography really sucks. Who is taking such bad photos?
Why are the photos so bad? They look like they are taken with a pocket digital camera and not a DSLR. All the photos have a very wide depth of field, which is the telltale sign of a pocket digital camera with a tiny sensor.”
MediaStorm: Rape of a Nation by Marcus Bleasdale: “The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is home to the deadliest war in the world today. An estimated 5.4 million people have died since 1998, the largest death toll since the Second World War, according to the International Rescue Committee (IRC).
IRC reports that as many as 45,000 people die each month in the Congo. Most deaths are due to easily preventable and curable conditions, such as malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia, malnutrition, and neonatal problems and are byproducts of a collapsed healthcare system and a devastated economy.
The people living in the mining towns of eastern Congo are among the worst off. Militia groups and government forces battle on a daily basis for control of the mineral-rich areas where they can exploit gold, coltan, cassiterite and diamonds.
After successive waves of fighting and ten years of war, there are no hospitals, few roads and limited NGO and UN presence because it is too dangerous to work in many of these regions. The West’s desire for minerals and gems has contributed to a fundamental breakdown in the social structure.”
Blueeyes: Portfolio, by Cosmin Bumbut: “Cosmin Bumbut’s work sits on the fence between the old world and the new. As one frame meets the next, the viewer is at once reminded of Josef Koudelka and Luc Delahaye. Villagers wait roadside for nothing to happen; men compete in black and white impromptu bodybuilding competitions. A lone fiery window glares out from a tenement building; a specter appears in front of a crossed doorway as if barred from entry.
Bumbut’s varied and unique work is at times frustrating: his children sleep with one eye open and fall from his viewfinder into the wide, grey sea, his subjects stare at you through glazed windows and pinholes. Like Delahaye’s images, one can sense both the familiarity and the unease the photographer and subject alike have within the moments the images are made.”
The Denver Post – House panel chides Bruce over kick: “A six-member Capitol panel voted unanimously today to recommend that the House censure Rep. Douglas Bruce for kicking a news photographer.
The panel of lawmakers took testimony from four people — starting with the Rocky Mountain News photographer who was kicked in the leg for taking Bruce’s picture during the morning prayer.
‘I didn’t expect him to kick me with a Bible in the hand,’ photographer Javier Manzano testified.”
TheStar.com: “Twenty days. Twenty thousand still images. A single message. Toronto Star photographer Lucas Oleniuk captures the issue of global warming in a video created entirely by using still images.
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Appleton Post-Crescent – Eye on the Ball Blog: GAME PLAN FOR THE BIG GAME: “Covering the big game requires a different approach than your typical game. A game plan is crucial because you coverage starts well before kickoff and continues well after the final whistle. Sunday’s NFC Championship game is a perfect example of how using a team approach paid off in the end. Oh…and you can’t forget what it takes to battle the elements…man was it cold! Here’s how things went from my perspective…
Because of the national attention this game gets, we arrived at Lambeau Field at about 12:30p.m. to make sure we could get enough workspace in the photography workroom. Boy were we glad we did. I haven’t seen this many photographers since I shot Super Bowl XL in Detroit. It was a madhouse.”
Color + Design Blog / Interview with Patrick Winfield: Polaroidologist by COLOURlovers: “I love Polaroid, so when the opportunity came along to interview Patrick Winfield, a graphic designer and photographer who frequently uses Polaroid to create dynamic visual stories, I jumped at the chance to speak with him.
Patrick’s work has a healthy following. I’m excited he took time to share his work; his love of Polaroid and playing around.”
Be a multimedia McGuyver – 101 DIY tools and techniques for cool, professional photo, audio and video gear on the cheap | Will Sullivan’s Journerdism: “Long, long ago in high school and college I used to do a bunch of indy films with friends and classmates for fun (and some school classes). We never had any money so we couldn’t buy expensive gear like steadycams and jigs, but we did have Home Depot, some tools, lots of time and ingenuity so we were able to cobble together makeshift gear to make things work.
Now-a-days, the magical internet has connected A/V nerds and backyard engineering geeks. Here’s a long list of cool video, photo, audio and multimedia techniques, tools and things to try out:”
CrunchGear » Archive » Canon 5D Mark II, apparently, not being announced: ” pma will not bring a new 5d body…..
Says tsiphoto from DP Review Forums. Apparently he has a proven track record on such things and shouldn’t be questioned.”
New Statesman – Art attack: “The phone rings; the number is withheld. It’s Banksy. He wants to know whether I can go to Bethlehem over Christmas. He is putting on an exhibition, bringing together like-minded artists from all over the world to raise awareness of the situation in Palestine. Like the annual guerrilla art shows that have taken place in London for the past six years, it will be called ‘Santa’s Ghetto’. Two weeks later, I find myself involved in an experience that transforms my ideas about what artists can do in the face of oppression.
We are living through an exciting time for political art. I have been an artist for 40 years, and my work has always focused on political and social issues. In the 1970s, I started making photo montage work, drawing on imagery from the Vietnam War and the row over nuclear armaments (a retrospective opens at the Pump House Gallery this month). Since the build-up to the Iraq War in 2002, I have been collaborating with a younger artist, Cat Picton Phillipps, developing new techniques and using digital technology to expose the lies that led to the invasion and the subsequent humanitarian disaster.
Over this period, our work has become linked to a group of young artists who work outside the official art world. Most of them started out painting graffiti on walls. The central figure in this group is Banksy, but although he attracts most of the press coverage, he is surrounded by a growing band of talented, politically committed artists. Our associates come from Spain and Italy, the US, Britain and Palestine. Since the era of the Bush/Blair war in Iraq, this movement has become increasingly politicised, just as my generation was politicised by the war in Vietnam. These are artists who want to connect with the real world, rather than work for the market, which has more of a stranglehold on art than ever. They combine creativity with protest, insisting that art should be more than the icing on the cake for the super-rich.”
Frontline Blogger Covers War in Iraq With a Soldier’s Eyes – New York Times: “Instead, he has spent most of the last three years in Iraq, writing prolifically and graphically, and racking up more time embedded with combat units than any other journalist, according to the United States military. He has been shot at, buffeted by explosions and seen more people maimed — fighters and civilians, adults and children — than he can count.
‘The easiest thing in the world to write about is combat, because all the drama is there,’ said Mr. Yon, a fit, ruddy-faced 43-year-old who was a Special Forces soldier more than two decades ago. He insists that he still does not really know the rules of journalism, but says he has recently, grudgingly, accepted that he has become a journalist.
His detailed, mostly admiring accounts of front-line soldiers’ daily work have won him a loyal following, especially among service members and journalists and bloggers who follow the war. One of his photographs showing an American soldier cradling an Iraqi girl injured in a car bombing (the girl later died) appeared on Time magazine’s Web site and was later voted one of top images of the year by visitors.”
Back To Shooting: I need to write things down: “I neglected to enter POY this year, because I thought I only had a couple images worth entering, both in the pictorial category. I forgot that when I left Lincoln, I thought I might have a good sports portfolio. So for your viewing pleasure, here’s what I could have entered, if I had stayed on top of things.”
The Video Game May Be Free, but to Be a Winner Can Cost Money – New York Times: “In a major departure from its traditional business model, E.A. plans to announce Monday that it is developing a new installment in its hit Battlefield series that will be distributed on the Internet as a free download. Rather than being sold at retail, the game is meant to generate revenue through advertising and small in-game transactions that allow players to spend a few dollars on new outfits, weapons and other virtual gear.
At a conference in Munich, the company intends to announce that the new game, Battlefield Heroes, will be released for PC this summer. More broadly, E.A. hopes the game can help point the way for Western game publishers looking to diversify beyond appealing to hard-core players with games that can cost $60 or more.”
The Photographs Not Taken: “The Photographs Not Taken is a collection of essays by photographers about the times they didn’t use their camera. “
The Sun News On-line | Wiveslive: “Ayobamidele Atinuke
I personally don’t support premarital sex. The Bible doesn’t support it but we must be very realistic. Sometimes, the situation might warrant it to happen probably once a week. I must make it very clear that if it must happen at all, then it must be with reasonable protection. However, if those involved are married, they can do it anytime and anywhere, even if she’s cooking in the kitchen.”
CONTEXT – This Week in Arts and Ideas from The Moscow Times: “The pictures come from a new coffee-table book, ’20th Century Russia in Photographs: 1900 to 1917,’ which covers the turbulent period in hundreds of full-page archival images, ranging from high politics to gritty documentary photography to family portraits.
The book is part of an ongoing project by state-owned gallery Moscow House of Photography to collect and catalogue historically interesting photographs taken over the last century. It’s planned that another four books will follow, loosely divided into the pre-war period, World War II, the Khrushchev and Brezhnev eras and perestroika to 2000, the gallery’s director, Olga Sviblova, said in an interview on Sunday.”
Getty Images – News Blog » Blog Archive » The Assassination of Benazir Bhutto: “As the former prime minister’s car surged forward, I pushed out of the way, ahead of her vehicle. I needed to adjust my camera. In the melee, the shutter setting had been bumped down to 1/15th and 1/8th of a second, giving the photos an unintended impressionistic look.
I turned on my flash, but just before resetting the lens, I turned and glanced back at her car.
That’s when I heard three shots. I knew from the sound that they were fired close to her car. I watched her drop down through the sunroof. Instinctively, I raised my camera, my finger pressed down on the shutter, starting to shoot without looking.
Just as the camera came up in front of my face, the bomb went off.”
