While I have made mention of making connections/mentoring/interning at newspapers with the intent to one day be employed as a staff photographer, I realize that this is not the only career option for photojournalists. Freelancing gives a photographer the ability to negotiate fees as well as retain the rights to images. However, it is not always simple knowing how much to charge for your work, and keeping track of your work orders, clients, and images.

Editorial Photographers provides a free application that helps determine the rate a photographer should charge for image use. The estimator found on their site helps a photographer determine rates for assignments, reprints, and stock work using such factors as space rates and magazine/publication circulation. To keep track of the paperwork involved in freelancing, photographer Tom Zimberoff created PhotoByte. This piece of software helps photographers manage work by creating a virtual paper trail. Images can be catalogued, sorted, and tracked, contacts added, invoices filed, revenue calculated, etc. The program also generates legal documents such as model releases, assignment confirmations, and equipment manifests. The program is free and also has an associated Yahoo group in which technical support is given.

Are blogs and RSS feeds destroying the business that I am attempting to enter? According to this article written April 25, 2005, by Randy Dotinga of the Christian Science Monitor, newspapers are facing increased competition from blogs, RSS feed readers, and sites that run their own news aggregators such as Yahoo! News and Google News. The article points out that "the percentage of adults who report reading daily newspapers has fallen from 81 percent in 1964 to just 52 percent in 2004." Newspapers have also suffered from a slew of credibility/ethics issues and the siphoning of advertisers from newsprint to internet sites such as craigslist.org (which the article mentions is free though it does charge for job postings). Dotinga continues:

Younger people are used to news content on the Internet, which allows them to pick from lists of headlines instead of flipping through pages to find stories that interest them, says Adam Penenberg, assistant professor in the business and economic reporting program at New York University. "They customize their news-gathering experience in a way a single paper publication could never do," Mr. Penenberg wrote in a Wired News column last year. "And their hands never get dirty from newsprint."

This is not to say that newspapers are not trying to address the problem. Many papers have attempted to increase readership by adding new sections that are quick and easy to read with subject material that appeals to a younger audience and female readers. That is not all they are doing. According to an April 07, 2005 Wired article, the Los Angeles Times, Denver Post, and UK Guardian will offer their own branded, stand-alone newsreader software. Some, like this slashdot.org user, believe that "The move is apparently intended to capture the less tech-savvy news consumer who may not know what an RSS reader is, but know that their favorite paper now offers them a way to get lots of headlines from lots of places." The post also mentions that the newsreaders allow the newspapers to maintain their own brand and sell relevant advertising.

Of course, this is not the first discussion on the topic of the internet and its effects on newspapers. For a great discussion visit this entry by SJSU Professor Dennis Dunleavy.

Ryan Sholin, a SJSU graduate student in Mass Communications summarizes and offers his insight on the previously mentioned Joining the Blogosphere event on his J-School Blog.

One of the many opportunities provided to students is the availability of mentors to help develop provhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifide advice, develop ideas, and improve portfolios among other things. On Wednesday, April 20, 2005 I had the pleasure of visiting photojournalist Dai Sugano at the San Jose Mercury News. Mr. Sugano, and his fellow photographers, were all extremely friendly and welcoming. Mr. Sugano looked at the work I have done so far and gave me advice on how to improve as well as suggestions for future projects.

Why exactly am I going on and on about my experience at the Mercury News? Mentoring, or even simply corresponding with professional photojournalists through email, is a great way to have work critiqued, network, and get a better sense of the daily operations of a staff photographer. Of course, the first place to look for a mentor should be your photojournalism professor. National organizations such as the National Press Photographers Association offer mentor programs to their members, with discounts for student memberships. Local organizations also provide mentoring opportunities, and guarantee that the mentor will live in the same area and be accessible. Photojournalism students in the SF Bay area are encouraged to join the San Francisco Bay Area Press Photographers Association. Perhaps the easiest way to get in touch with a photographer is to simply email him/her. Take initiative and start a dialogue between yourself and a photographer that you respect and whose work you admire.

Mentoring provides a one-on-one relationship that can be difficult to come by in a regular classroom setting. It also opens up a whole new world of resources and is something that I hope more students begin to take advantage of.

On Wednesday, April 19, 2005 at 7pm I attended the Joining the Blogosphere talk held in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library by the Commonwealth Club. The talk featured Dan Gillmor, founder of Grassroots Journalism, David Pescovitz, co-founder of boingboing.net, Jude Barry, Co-founder of Catapult Strategies and contributor to sanjoseinside.com, and Chuck Olsen, producer of Blogumentary. While the talk had its interesting moments, it was not what I expected it to be.

The topic of whether or not bloggers are journalists was again raised, with the consensus seeming to be that some bloggers are journalists while most are not. This is a topic that has been discussed for a few years now, and will no doubt continue to be beaten to death as blogs continue to gain prominence. The issue of fact checking was brought up. As David Pescovitz pointed out, "The quickest way to find out if you're wrong about something is to post it on the net." Jude Barry mentioned the need for free form, unfiltered journalism in the form of blogs as a response to increasing mainstream media consolidation.

I thought that there would be more mention of concerns of anonymity on the internet. This was not the case as this concern was not mentioned at all. Though the purpose of the forum was to discuss if blogs were a valid form of grassroots journalism, I had hoped that it could expand into different areas. This debate has been going on for a few years and has always resulted in the consensus that some journalists are bloggers. Instead, I would have hoped that the discussion could have moved towards the potential uses of blogging as well as the pitfalls. The future use of blogging in politics was discussed, but there are so many other outlets. How can blogging be best used in education? In public relations? In empowering freelance writers/photographers? How can future readers avoid taking pr spin and propaganda as truth?

I did enjoy the forum and hope to attend future Commonwealth Club events. On May 5, Chuck D, of Public Enemy fame, will be speaking at the Club. For baseball fans (I am a Dodger fan myself, transplanted in the Bay Area), Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball, will be speaking at the Commonwealth Club on Thursday May 12.

This list was made in response to a fellow student's desire to emulate the look of specific slide films on a digital image in post processing. I hope that it can prove useful to others. Techniques were taken from various internet sites and have not been verified. Most sites listed have directions for how to achieve the look in Photoshop. Some have downloadable actions to streamline the process. At the bottom are listed sites that contain multiple tools but are not free. Please feel free to email me to add on to this list or correct it. Thank you.

Useful Sites:
Adobe Studio Exchange
_____contains many actions created by users

Fuji Velvia/Provia
Velvia/Provia Action 1
_____example: http://www.v12digital.com/Photos/Bridge.jpg
Velvia Action 2
Digital Velvia @ Digital Outback Photo
Velvia/Provia Effects (Adobe Studio Exchange)

Kodachrome
Kodachrome Action

Tri-X 400
Tri-X Action

Infrared
Infrared Action
Infrared Herring (Popular Photography)
Infrared (Fotofects)

Cross Processing
Cross Process Action
Cross Process Step by Step

Lith Prints
Lith Prints Step by Step
Lith Print Action

Hi Key Portaits
Hi Key Step by Step

Sepia Tones
Sepia Tone Step by Step

Holga
Holga Action
Melancholytron - Holga (free demo)

Sites with Software to buy
http://www.fredmiranda.com/software/
http://www.pixelgenius.com/photokit/
http://www.silveroxide.com/

Photography Forums/Communities
photo.net Digital Darkroom Forum
dpreview Forums
Fred Miranda Forums
Photography Review Forums

A few weeks ago in SJSU's MCOM 72 (Media & Society), which is taught by Professor Rucker, The Apprentice was assigned as a JAM (Journal Analyzing Media Strategies). The class was asked to discuss what was expected out of today's youth in the business world. To many, The Apprentice demonstrated how cutthroat and competitive the "real world" could be. It seemed as though your equals would be willing to do anything, either behind your back or to your face, in order to get closer to their own goals. I assumed that these people on television were only so competitive because that is precisely what it was, a competition. Surely once you have your staff job on a daily newspaper it is more of a family that supports one another...

On Sunday, April 10, SFBAPPA held its awards banquet for the 31st Annual Newspaper and Television News Photography Competition. While there was no boardroom wheeling and dealing as in The Apprentice, I was surprised at the apparent lack of camaraderie between fellow photojournalists and television news photographers. It seemed as though, with a few exceptions, photographers would only applaud winners from their own company, not to mention a lack or respect for the student winners.

Of course, there are always two sides to a coin. I have met nothing but open arms in contacting photographers and educators for this blog and for photojournalism related questions. Photographers such as Dai Sugano and educators such as Jenni Goldman have not hesitated in responding to my inquiries, meeting face-to-face, and assisting in my education.

And so I am left with a few questions. Do photojournalists view students only as potential competition? How much camaraderie exists between fellow photojournalists? How would a competitive/collaborative work environment affect a photographer's drive and the quality of work produced?

I have been making a great deal about technologies such as blogging and podcasting which have the potential to be huge academic tools for students and teachers. As pointed out by Janet Stemwedel however, "it's at least as easy for students to avoid viewing a lecture that's available online as it is for them to skip a live lecture."

From a student's perspective, these new tools should be used more to supplement the education that we receive within the classroom. Students will choose to ignore an online lecture just as they would undoubtedly choose to skip a live lecture. It is my hope that with these new technologies, teachers will have the freedom to make the time that students have in class more interactive. Involving the students and filling the class time with discussion would leave the students more interested in the topic and more willing to research it outside of class. It is here that blogging and podcasting come in to play. Not so much to provide a convenient lecture, but to quickly and easily provide the student with the information that he/she would have received in a lecture in a more inviting form. By inviting, I mean to say, not simply a professor in a suit jacket talking for an hour. Because let's be honest with ourselves, in school, as in photojournalism, talking heads are boring.

For a quick example of the resources that are now available at a student's fingertips, I happened to be flipping through the channels on my television and recognized a face that I had seen recently in the media. It was Jeff Gannon, who was taking part in the aforementioned "Who is a Journalist?" discussion held at the National Press Club and broadcast on C-SPAN2. As a student in the School of Journalism & Mass Communications I was interested. I then logged on to the C-SPAN website, and found that I could view a webcast of the event through the internet. By doing this I was able to (1) record the audio using a program called WireTap, and (2) take down notes with sychronized audio using Office 2004 for Mac. Once the event concluded I was able to view the blogs of those involved as well as those who witnessed it. I gained further insight into the purpose of the panel, the members of the panel, and the aftermath. In short, the internet, blogs, webcasts, and podcasts all played a part in my following this particular event just as they could for any number of topics.

One of the most common complaints about the blogosphere as a legitimate news and/or educational source is the anonymity that is possible within the internet. As has been continually noted, with only a computer and internet access anyone can publish his or her thoughts onto the web.

However, we should not forget the need, at times, for anonymity. As political humorist Ana Marie Cox noted while speaking in the "Who is a Journalist?" panel held at the National Press Club today, works such as The Federalist Papers and Thomas Paine's Common Sense were published anonymously for the safety of the writers from those in power. In a more contemporary example, the ea_spouse blog was created anonymously so that the spouse of an Electronic Arts employee could make public EA's treatment of employees during a "crunch time" for a product's development. As the author notes, "I am retaining some anonymity here because I have no illusions about what the consequences would be for my family if I was explicit." The blog started to receive a good deal of press, and has resulted in EA changing its policy to now pay some developers by the hour (they were salaried and, according to the blog, working 85 hour work weeks with no overtime of comp pay), a class action lawsuit against EA, and the formation of Gamewatch, which is meant to be a "non-corporate-sponsored watchdog organization specifically devoted to monitoring quality of life in the game industry." These actions would not have been possible if the parties involved were not able to air their grievances publicly yet anonymously.

Recently the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), most known for their defense of those targeted by the RIAA, released an article focusing on how best to blog anonymously. Go to their article for more information.

Though podcasting is relatively new, it has long been known that the iPod can be used as a portable hard drive. I assume that many photographers (especially students, as we seem to be purchasing iPods in huge numbers) have considered the image storage possibilities of the iPod. Unfortunately, photographers had little option when looking for camera to iPod connectors. Our prayers were seemingly answered in mid February when Apple announced that they were developing a camera connector that would retail for around 30 dollars and the "photo import" option began appearing on 3G and 4G iPods after updating the firmware. The Apple iPod Camera Connector appeared for pre-order on the Apple Store in late March. Sadly, as witnessed in the iPodlounge review, the camera connector is only compatible with the new iPod Photo line of iPods. This leaves the Belkin Digital Camera Link for iPod ($79.00) and Belkin Media Reader for iPod ($99.00) as the only options available for photographers who wish to use their iPod to store photos when out shooting.

As a quick follow-up to my previous post, I recently read an article on advancedIPpipeline, part of TechWeb, that discusses Google's plan to allow video uploading to its servers. As stated in the article, this would add on to Google's existing services; Blogger, which allows users to publish blogs like this one, GMail, which has expanded its storage from 1GB to 2GB and counting, Picasa, which enables users to store, sort, send, and publish photos to their blogs, and Hello, an instant message/picture sharing application.

Recently there has been a great deal of media coverage on the emergence of the "blog-o-sphere." Much of this attention has either been focused on its ability to diseminate information quickly and easily as well as the huge number of personal blog communities that have formed. Equally important has been the emergence of blogging as an educational tool. Educational blogs provide students with another level of interaction outside of the classroom. They also open up students to an amount of content that could never fit into a few lectures. While reading a blog I can click on a related link. This link takes me to more information, as well as more links. By the time I have finished reading, I may have gone to ten different sites and learned about more subjects and found more resources than I was aware existed. Educators and students have the ability to comment on and respond to each others comments. Also, unlike classroom discussions, these conversations are archived and can be looked up again if pertinent in the future.

While blogging is very useful, educators should be aware that it is only one of a few emerging technologies that will hopefully find their way into the classroom. Another such tool is "podcasting." Podcasting allows the educator to record audio using something as simple as an iPod with the attachable microphone. Students can then subscribe to different podcasts in much the same way that a rss aggregator works. When a new audio file is uploaded, students can download the file and listen to it on their computer, in a poartable mp3 player, burn it to cd, etc.

How can this be put into use in the classroom? Podcasting can be used to give students access to lectures, allowing class time to be dedicated to more interactive classroom discussion and critical thinking. This technology is also useful in giving students access to the minds of leading professionals. While it is not always feasible for speakers to travel to every college that that invites them, it would be quite simple to record a lecture and allow students from across the globe to download and learn from it. An example of this can be seen in Steve Sloan's interview of SJSU Photojournalism Professor Dennis Dunleavy on the topic of emerging technology in the classroom. I am not pretending to be an expert on podcasting, and what other educational benefits may come from podcasting remain to be seen.

To be fully utilized as an educational tool it must get past certain problems. To my knowledge, there is no way to search the contents of the audio files. With blogs, for instance, a student can search for a specific topic within the blog, and be directed to the correct section of the correct post. While you can search podcasts based on their title, it is not possible to search for anything specific within the audio file. Perhaps a solution lies in somewhere in Microsoft's OneNote program, which was developed primarily for tablet pc's. OneNote allows students to synchronize the textual notes that they take with the recorded audio notes. These notes can then be searched through (using the textual notes) without having to replay the whole audio file. The program's usefulness can be seen in this MSN article in which MIT students were given the opportunity to try the software.

Blogging, podcasting, webcasting, skyping, etc all have huge potential as educational tools. Hopefully educators can find the best possible ways to integrate these into classrooms and improve the amount of resources available to students.

ABC World News Tonight ran a segment on the Heart Gallery Photographers. For those that missed the segment, the photographers involved donate their time to photograph and raise awareness for the over 130,000 orphaned American children. With the constant news of photographers harassing celebrities, the public opinion of journalists as being less honest than state and local officeholders, and Hollywood movies such as Paparazzi, it is refreshing to be shown some of the good that photographers help make on a daily basis.

The piece explained how the photographers have to dig past a child's hard exterior, built up by years of abuse and neglect. It is when they melt away this shell that the photographers "hit gold," as one photographer put it.

According to ABC World News Tonight, the Heart Galleries can be found in 50 cities across the nation.

In writing my own blog, I thought it would be a good idea to research what other students and journalists were doing. While searching I came across A J-School Year. This blog is written by University of South Carolina students who are supervised by Doug Fisher. After reading the blog I decided to email Mr. Fisher and ask him more about the program that he runs. He was kind enough to let me publish his answers:

Is maintaining the blog part of a class that your students take?

No. This was a voluntary, by invitation only group. Wanted to have a certain section of students -- good and struggling and acrosss all sequences.

What do you want your students to take away from the blogging experience?

That it gives you more of a chance to write -- after all, isn't that what most students tell me they want to do? And it gives you a place to tell future employers to go look at what you can do. I also wanted them to get the idea of writing for the Web and that the "currency" is linking, etc. So far, that has been of limited success.

Do you feel that bloggers will one day be considered journalists (as the first blogger was recently admitted into a White House press conference)?

I'm a blogger. I consider myself a journalist. I report as well as comment on my blog (http://commonsensej.blogspot.com). Look at the work I've done on the "whois" problem. Or the little piece I posted the other day on newspaper Web sites' dominance. Of course, I also use the blog to point out and comment on editing mistakes and issues and to comment in general on what I think are relevant industry issues. With J-Year, I also considered the students reporters -- reporting on what a year in J-school is like.

Or will credible journalists adopt the blogs as a separate outlet for news dissemination?

Yes, too. They already do in many cases. Look at the New Mexican site where its reporters are blogging, or Ventura (Calif.) Star. Or the huge number of reporter blogs at the Spokesman Review in Spokane. SacBee's statehouse folks also do it, as do many others every day. And several newspapers have successfully used blogs during disasters, especially last summer's hurricanes. And we showed with the Wireless Election Connection (http://wec.textamerica.com) this summer in covering the conventions and elections that mobile Web logs can be viable journalistic channels.

How have students reacted to the blogging experience and what do you think they have gained from it?

Not as much as I had hoped. I have several students who told me they were enthusiastic and have yet to post. Too busy, they say. Whatever. My fear in talking to many students is that they still do not "get it" -- that they are educating themselves for what has been, not what is to come. Those who have posted, I think, have gained a new understanding of the power of the format. One woman, for instance, put a fairly scathing post up about her TV job search and gained national attention. Another quickly learned that one should ask for permission before posting from a
private e-mail. All useful things ...