Full-scale Detail: Let the Little Things Shine

Weddings offer a smorgasbord of photojournalistic opportunities. From emotional moments to minute details, to capture an event like a wedding means your eyes always have to be open and searching! So often wedding photographers share the emotional, documentary moments or romantic posed portraits. Today, I want to share how much the details can say about the event without even including the bride and groom.

Following is a collage I put together of images including the aisle decor, bridesmaid bouquet, cake toppers, and groomsman's bow tie from a single wedding. Shown together, these tell the story of the day and give an idea of the sweetness that surrounded this particular celebration. From soft blues and sea foam greens to baby's breath in painted vases, these details were all carefully thought of by the couple. It is images like these that provide context for an album, both online and in print.

Are you a fan of detail shots? You can practice your compositional techniques and play with different types of lenses at relaxed events like birthday parties and holiday gatherings. If you love the idea of shooting a wedding, get in touch with pro photographers in your area to see if you can assist or even second shoot with them (make sure you have portfolio-worthy examples of event shots first so they can see your style). When I use a second shooter, I look for someone who can take care of many of these detail shots while I interact with the couple and guests. In fact, the examples here were taken while I was the second shooter, seeking out the elements that set this wedding apart to remind the couple of all the decisions that came together on their wedding day.

Happy shooting, and don't forget the details!

-Friday Ambassador

Sunday Spotlight On: When does it become fine art?

With a documentary/photojournalism background I find myself struggling to convert over to fine arts photography. For so long I have always been told that the two does not coexist and that fine arts is more visually appealing while documentary work needs to just be approached heads on. I was also told that posing your subjects whom you are documenting takes away from the storyline and it becomes portraits instead of documentary work. If documentary photography is about infinite situations, actions and results and photojournalism is about life in real time, then why can’t I make these into fine art photography? I choose to look at the “staged” images that I create as a paradox of reality. It is real life situations in a staged setting.

I am in the beginning stages of creating a series of fine art portraits on children and their heritage. Being located here in Hawaii, there are tons of different nationalities that are living amongst each other either transplanted, natives or military families such as myself. The children which whom I come across are sometimes dressed in their native heritage clothing while other families tend to dress their children in everyday attire. I find it fascinating when people pass their heritage and beliefs down to generations in order to know where they came from. These children know their past and where they came from, but what about the children who do not know? I recently mentioned to a friend about my concept and that I needed more people to complete my series. The next day I got a phone call from a genealogist from the University of Hawaii that they would like to speak to me for a collection of fine arts portraits of their subjects. After I met with the department heads and explained my vision as well as showing them some portraits that I have already completed, they commissioned me to create the entire series with their real life subjects after they have been notified of their heritage. This will be a 12 month commission and although some things will change, I can still explore creative ways document my original idea but with children and adults. 

I created the image shown for a class assignment but it did not quite fit with the rest of my already existing images. I wanted to pursue this as documentary but still play with the idea of making these into fine art. I believe that as I continue to explore what type of photography makes me happy, I will begin to create images that represent my style and all of the numerous ideas that are swirling in my head.

Quiana P Jackson. Heritage, 2014. 

I am your Sunday Funday Ambassador! Go forth and shoot!

Ethics in Photography and Photojournalism

Good Morning and Happy Sunday! Today I wanted to touch base on a few things that I had to research in my last class which was Intro to Photojournalism. This will be a slightly longer blog than usual, but I think that it touches on some very good points.

The subject of ethics in photography has been a long standing issue; there have been instances of fraud that have been documented back to when Lincoln was President.  In the last decade, with the introduction of Photoshop and other photo editing programs this has become an easier task for people who want to bend the truth and give a totally distorted view on a certain event or situation.

The first documented case of fraud occurred around 1860, with a photograph of President Lincoln. “This nearly iconic portrait (in the form of a lithograph) of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is a composite of Lincoln’s head and the Southern politician John Calhoun’s body.”  (Four & Six). This is just one example.

Then there is another example is of General Ulysses S. Grant, this photo composite was apparently done circa, 1864. “This print (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division) appears to be of General Ulysses S. Grant in front of his troops at City Point, Virginia, during the American Civil War. Some very nice detective work by researchers at the Library of Congress revealed that this print is a composite of three separate prints: (1) the head in this photo is taken from a portrait of Grant; (2) the horse and body are those of Major General Alexander M. McCook; and (3) the background is of Confederate prisoners captured at the battle of Fisher’s Hill, VA.” (Four and six).

But in recent years the news services all over the world have been caught printing and circulating fraudulent photos. Ethics and morals go hand in hand, when a news agency enhances or uses a photo out of context it constitutes fraud. Reuters has come under fire with others like U.S New and World Report for misrepresenting images.

“The recent discovery that the Reuters news agency released a digitally manipulated photograph as an authentic image of the bombing in Beirut has drawn attention to the important topic of bias in the media. But lost in the frenzy over one particular image is an even more devastating fact: that over the last week Reuters has been caught red-handed in an astonishing variety of journalistic frauds in the photo coverage of the war in Lebanon.” (Zombietime.com)  In the images s how by this blog, Reuters used the same woman in different areas, on different dates claiming devastation to her home.  When the truth came out, the images were just recirculated with a new caption, this is fraud and creates mistrust in the people that are printing or circulating the images.  Below are a few of the images of the same woman.

      

Again if you have any comments or questions please feel free to ask.

Enjoy Your Sunday and Photograph Something Everyday!

Sunday Ambassador~ Wayne

References:

Four and Six, . "Photo Tampering throughout History." www.fourandsix.com. Four and Six.com, n.d. Web. 5 Sep 2013. <http://www.fourandsix.com/photo-tampering-history/>.

Four and Six, . "Photo Tampering throughout History." www.fourandsix.com. Four and Six.com, n.d. Web. 5 Sep 2013. <http://www.fourandsix.com/storage/photo-tampering-history/c1860-Lincoln.jpg>.

Four and Six, . "Photo Tampering throughout History." www.fourandsix.com. Four and Six.com, n.d. Web. 5 Sep 2013. <http://www.fourandsix.com/storage/photo-tampering-history/c1864-Grant.jpg>.

Zombietime.com, . "The Reuters Photo Scandal: A taxonomy of Fraud." Zombietime.com. Zombietime.com, 2006. Web. 5 Sep. 2013. <http://www.zombietime.com/reuters_photo_fraud/>.

Photojournalism with a Twist and a Vape

Good Morning Everyone and Happy Sunday,  I know its  been a while since my last blog, but my current class of Intro to Photojournalism and some other obligations have been putting me through the ringer. Today's blog won't be a  long one and I apologize about that, but I wanted to share with everyone some things I have been working on. Within the last two months I had quit smoking, thanks a few wonderful people in my life. This opened up a whole new area to photograph. Its called Vaping or e-cigs... Call it what you want it saved my life and thousands of others.

I had the opportunity to attended a Vape meet at Liberty Vapor in Phoenixville, PA as part of my photojournalism class and Vapor myself, I found that everywhere in the vaping community there are people willing to help enhance your own personal creativity. Below are some of the photos that I took for my final assignment.

You can check out Liberty Vapor at www.Libertyvapor.net if you dont live in the Phoenixville area or stop in they would love to help you take that next step.

Photos by Wayne Salat

Photos by Wayne Salat

Photos by Wayne Salat

Photos by Wayne Salat

Photos by Wayne Salat

Again if you have any comments or questions please feel free to ask.

Enjoy Your Sunday and Photograph Something Everyday!

Sunday Ambassador~ Wayne

I Never Planned To Be A Photojournalist!

Over the past two weeks I have had an abundance of photojournalism jobs. During the photojournalism classes I took at AIPOD, I kept thinking, I will never use this kind of photography in my wedding and portrait business. I never expected my business to take in business event coverage. You see, these jobs have not been for newspapers or magazines, but rather for Inforum, A Women’s Business Alliance, one of my commercial clients. I covered three lunch events where a moderator had a conversation on the place of women in business today with the special guest. These guests were: in Lansing: Governor Richard Snyder;

in Detroit: Dan Akerson, Chairman of General Motors; and in Grand Rapids: Doug DeVos, President of Amway Corporation. At the meetings with Governor Snyder and Dan Akerson,which were on consecutive days, there was an abundance of press, and I had to take advantage of my role as official photographer for Inforum to get images I wanted. At the first event, I saw the way the press acted, knew I could never be so rude, and quickly adapted so that I could get the images I wanted without being rude. (I asked the governor’s press secretary to let me get a photo after the press conference ended and she kept the governor there just long enough for me to snap a photo of him in front of the banners. I had to make sure that one quick shot counted!) I learned from this what I needed to do to get the shots I wanted. The lunch meeting with Dan Akerson was extremely large, with over 1,000 in attendance and camera and newspeople from every major source. I had my zoom lens, so I got down on the floor with the cameramen in front of the tables for some great shots. And knowing those in charge of Inforum, I was ready at the end of the luncheon to grab a more formal shot with Dan Akerson as they came off the stage. As soon as I was finished, the camera/newspeople were moving in. The lighting in both images was flat, but at least I got the images.

A week passed between the Detroit and the Grand Rapids meetings. Inforum may have limited who could come from the press on this meeting. There were only two other cameras there, and only one shooting during the meeting. I knew exactly where I needed to be to get great images. After the meeting, I had press people from the local paper and media people three other places asking if they could get images from me. I now have contacts with the local newspaper (who already got a photo from me) and the publisher of a local women’s magazine. The newspaper needed a horizontal image. Amway’s media department will be more interested in an image that “puts a good light” on their company president. Which photo do you think Amway will prefer?

Suddenly, today, after this experience, I was glad for the times I was forced to think like a photojournalist. Those classes prepared me to not only cover an event, but do it artistically.

So, the moral of the story, learn every genre the best you can. It will pay off someday.                                          Have a great Thursday!

Photojournalism...Our window to the past

When I got to work yesterday, I had an e-mail in my inbox from a co-worker that I found very interesting.  It was a link to a time lapse video of World War II.  It was a pretty simple video that showed the occupation of Europe and Africa, via map, for every day throughout the entire war.

On the map the Axis and Allies were represented by different colors as one could expect.  What I found surprising was that Finland had its own color on the map, as if they were a major player in the war.  I consider myself to be fairly knowledgeable about history and I was confused by this so I did some research and found out that Finland played a much bigger part in the war.  The fought against the Soviets alone and with the Germans (Taylor).  They also fought against the Germans for control of Lapland (Taylor).  They maintained a firm hold on their homeland throughout the war.

While I was doing the research I came upon an article on The Atlantic's website that had a preview of the over 160,000 photos the Finnish Defense Forces had assembled and released (Taylor).  Please enjoy this look at World War II from a perspective that we don't normally see.



Flamethrower in action in the woods near the village of Niinisalo, on July 1, 1942. (SA-kuva)



Evacuation of civilians, on July 1, 1941 (SA-kuva)



An experiment in troop transportation in cold weather. (SA-kuva)



At the Hämeenlinna war dog school. (SA-kuva)



Nurmoila village, shortly after Russian bombers attacked. (SA-kuva)

Works Cited

SA-kuva. Civilian evacuations. 1 July 1941. In Focus with Alan Taylor. Web. 9 Oct. 2013. <http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/05/finland-in-world-war-ii/100519/>.

- - -. Flamethrower in action. 1 July 1942. In Focus with Alan Taylor. Web. 9 Oct. 2013. <http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/05/finland-in-world-war-ii/100519/>.

- - -. Nurmoila Village. N.d. In Focus with Alan Taylor. Web. 9 Oct. 2013. <http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/05/finland-in-world-war-ii/100519/>.

- - -. Troop transport experiment. N.d. In Focus with Alan Taylor. Web. 9 Oct. 2013. <http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/05/finland-in-world-war-ii/100519/>.

- - -. War Dog School. N.d. In Focus with Alan Taylor. Web. 9 Oct. 2013. <http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/05/finland-in-world-war-ii/100519/>.

Taylor, Alan. "Finland in World War II." In Focus with Alan Taylor. Atlantic Monthly Group, 23 May 2013. Web. 9 Oct. 2013. <http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/05/finland-in-world-war-ii/100519/>.

 

 

 

 

Mobile Photojournalism

http://www.benlowy.com/

     Does this picture look familiar?

The photo is one by Ben Lowy, a professional photojournalist who has used his iPhone 4s and an app called Hipstamatic to document several current event stories; this one is from Hurricane Sandy.

Time Magazine cropped this photograph and used it for their cover.
Ben Lowy's work has also had front page appearances in the New York Times for the conflict in Libya and has done work for The New Yorker.

     You have probably read some of the disputes about Lowy and other similar photographers' images. Many people say using the iPhone camera is "gimmicky" and unprofessional, and to add Hipstamatic crosses the line on what is honest photojournalism. What do you as photography students think?

     Let's note that Lowy is already a professional in his field. He's not running around snapping blurry shots and slapping an Instagram filter on them. As an avid user of Hipstamatic, I can say the results are a bit unpredictable. The app doesn't use post-processing, rather you select options like lenses, film, and flash before shooting. It means you actually need to think about what you want your image to look like, just like Lowy would do using an SLR or DSLR.

     But does it blur the line between stylized and genuine? And is it different than what we do with Photoshop beyond maybe exposure adjustments and cropping? I am getting my degree to work towards photojournalism, and it does seem to be an especially gray area.

     What do you as photography students think? We all have opinions so let's share with respect and consideration.

     Here's a link to a good article on the subject.
   
     http://www.tuaw.com/2012/11/06/time-magazine-cover-shot-with-iphone/

    http://hipstography.com/en/hipstographers-2/hipstamatic-too-hip-for-photojournalism.html

Have another great weekend guys,

Friday

Markus Andersen. 2013.