Where and when a photojournalist can shoot

   This is a great guide for knowing where and when to take photos as a photojournalist. I don't expect photojournalism students to know that taking photos of kids at a public park and documenting police arresting suspects from the sidewalk are both legal, but you need permission to shoot inside of a mall and a school classroom.

   Photojournalists who have been on the job a long time know most of these guidelines, but as you can see, there are a lot of places, and the rules can be tricky. 

   So, please study this graph because you're going to need it. 

   For other policies regarding photojournalism ethics and law, go to NPPA Code of Ethics.

    Source: Photojournalism: The Professionals' Approach, by Kenneth Kobre'

Why photojournalists prefer using Photo Mechanic to Adobe Bridge

An example how an edited photo using Photoshop returns beside the unedited version in Photo Mechanic.

   During a recent course chat with a Kent State grad student in the Teaching Multimedia course, she questioned the use of Photo Mechanic as part of the photography assignment workflow. She thought using Photo Mechanic was an extra, unnecessary step in the photo editing process.

   It is a good question. After all, if you already have access to Adobe Bridge, then why bother with Photo Mechanic (PM)? After all, both are media browsers that accelerate your workflow. Once photos are ingested, both allow you to preview your photo shoot and tag your selection via color codes or stars. 

   And neither offer the editing option. Although PM allows you to do a simple crop and crooked horizon adjustment. You still have to edit your images through Photoshop, Adobe Elements or Lightroom.

   But there are a few distinct differences that make PM an industry standard for photojournalists.     

   Here are a few reasons why PM is the browser of choice for photojournalists:

• PM is cheaper. Version 5 is a one-time price of $150. No monthly fee. You also get an education discount.
• It is a cross-platform, standalone browser that is compatible for both MACs and PCs, and one license will work on up to three different computers.
• You can write captions in the IPTC Stationary Pad. You can caption a single image, or a group of images fast and simple; and those captions carry over onto your Wordpress blog posts. The IPTC Stationary Pad also allows you to add copyright information.
• You can transmit your images right out of PM to your newspaper or organization. This prevents you from having to email, Dropbox or Google Drive your images.    

   So, if you are a Digital Photojournalism or Teaching Multimedia student of mine, it would be a disservice not to expose you to Photo Mechanic, a powerful image browser and workflow accelerator made for photojournalists who work fast and furious on deadlines.

   Consider this: After an assignment, we are expected to quickly upload hundreds of images, select and write captions for the chosen ones, edit them, and then transmit (export) them moments after the assignment has ended. 

   Adobe Bridge is just too impractical for what we have to accomplish.

My justification as to why audio lesson is a vital part of photoj curriculum

This is the very first audio story recorded and produced by Owens Visual Storytelling student Suzanne Caris, published on the Owens Outlook online student newspaper Nov. 28. 

WGTE's Haley Taylor explains her strategy for producing her Rough Draft Diaries series at the Toledo station.

   I received a negative comment on an instructor evaluation last semester from a Wayne State Digital Photojournalism student.

   That student wrote, and I quote: “Why in the f--- are we editing sound?”

   A few years ago I would have asked that same question, but not now. Gone are the days when photojournalists simply take still photos and write captions.   

   I try to make it pretty clear throughout each semester that photojournalism is rapidly evolving, expanding, transforming, and yes, getting harder. We are multitasking; being spread too thin; and doing more for less. Photojournalists now shoot video (and some even fly drones and do VR and 3D work), while journalists can be expected to shoot their own still photos and videos, as well.

   All three of my classes (Wayne State, Kent State and Owens) are either creating audio slideshows or podcasting. So, as a photojournalism instructor, it's my job to expose students to basic audio capture and production.

   That’s why they are editing sound.

   The WSU Digital Photojournalism course is an intense introduction class that is filled with journalism, broadcasting and public relation majors. They learn the basics of the DSLR camera, how to write captions, and their First Amendment rights. They also shoot feature, portrait and sports assignments for practical experience.

   For their final project, they shoot and produce an audio slideshow, which requires an audio track. They shoot the story, and also record interviews and capture ambient sound, if appropriate. The students can add royalty-free music if it benefits the story.

   The audio is recorded with their cell phones, a recording device or their cameras, and then edited using Audacity, a free multi-track audio editor and recorder that is installed on all of the MAC computers in the classroom. Adobe Premiere Pro CCis used for the audio slideshow production.

Haley Taylor's strategy for a Rough Draft Diaries show.

   For the Visual Storytelling course at Owens, I added podcasting to the curriculum this semester. 

    According to Dictionary.com, a podcast is a digital audio or video file or recording, usually part of a themed series, that can be downloaded from a website to a media player or computer.

   To kick off the audio lesson we took a field trip to WGTE Public Radio in Toledo in October. We were given a tour by Cathy Kamenca, and podcaster Haley Taylor was gracious enough to show us how she produces her Rough Draft Diaries series.   

   Then the students hit the ground running. They used either the Zoom H2 recorder or their cell phones to capture the audio; edited their files using Audacity, and uploaded their stories on either audioBoom or SoundCloud.

   Their audio stories are currently airing weekly on the Owens Outlook student newspaper.

   This new audio lesson, which is pretty basic, is appropriate for this course, considering the Visual Storytelling class is now a requirement course in the new broadcasting major.

   The Owens Outlook staff is pondering a name and branding image for the podcasts. It’s unclear at the time the direction we’ll go with them.

   After all, this class, like photojournalism, is still evolving, transforming and expanding.

   To listen to my first effort at podcasting for the Toledo Blade, go here.

WGTE's Cathy Kamenca, second from right, gives the Owens' Visual Storytelling students a tour of the Toledo studio.

Photojournalism students learn ISOs, shutters speeds and f/stops...oh my!

Wayne State's COM 2280 Digital Photojournalism class pose after practicing with motion. (Photos by Lori King)

    Photography is easy. Just put your camera mode on Auto or Program and shoot. The camera will think for you!

    But we don't do things the easy way. My photojournalism and multimedia students are required to shoot on Manual mode, giving them full control of the camera, and their images. And this ain't easy. It's expected they will make lots of mistakes. After all, isn't that how we learn?

• This is a recap, in a nutshell, of what was learned this past week:                              The camera is an instrument that controls light. It doesn't know what the subject is that it's capturing, whether that be a human, building or pet.
• The camera is built to read light that bounces off of 18% gray tones. White or bright objects will reflect too much light, while black or dark objects will absorb the light; hence light bouncing off of gray is the magic tone for correct exposure.
• The three controls that take away or add light are ISO, shutter speed and aperture (f/stop).
  - ISO is one way to control light, and you should always set that first. It is the camera sensor's sensitivity to light. The higher the ISO, the more light you add to the scene, or the lower the ISO, the less light you add.
  These are the standard ISOs: 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400. ISO 400 is a good middle ground, but it is on the slow side. We refer to ISOs as slow or fast speed. A 200 ISO is slow, and a 1600 ISO is fast. Because 1600 adds more light to the sensor, you can set a fast shutter speed, which takes away light. Simple formula: The faster the ISO, the faster the shutter speed.
  - Shutter speed is when you trigger the shutter button and a mirror (for cameras with mirrors) opens and closes. All you need to know is that the longer the mirror stays open, the more light hits the sensor. The faster the mirror opens and closes, the less light hits the sensor.
  The shutter speed has another job, as well: motion. The three types of motion are blur, panned and stopped. Blur and panned are best accomplished at around 1/30^th of a second. While stopped action is best shot at 1/500^th of a second and faster.
  These are the standard shutter speeds: 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, 1/2000, 1/4000.
  - Apertures, also called f/stops, are controlled through the lens.
  These are the standard f/stops: f2.8, f4, f5.6, f8, f11, f16, f22, f32.
  When you set your aperture, you're opening or closing a hole in the lens. F2.8 is the biggest hole, allowing in more light, while f32 is the smallest, allowing in very little light. This concept can be confusing because the smaller number is the bigger hole. Just remember that these numbers are actually fractions that measure the diameter of the hole. So, f/4 is actually 1/4th, and F/8 is actually 1/8th: 1/4th is twice as big as 1/8th. Yes, there's math involved!

         Aperture also has another job. It controls depth of field. A shallow depth of field (subject in focus while foreground and background is out of focus) is at the f2.8 range, while a wide depth of field (subject and fore/background is in focus) is around f/16 and smaller.

Reciprocity

    These three controls work together to add or take away light. This is called reciprocity, as they are reciprocal to one another.

    Photographically, we measure light in stops. The setting between ISO 400 and 800 is one stop, which is the exact same amount of light as between f/4 and f5.6, which is the same amount as between 1/125^th of a second and 1/250^th.
   So, to meter properly, set the ISO first; then set your either your aperture or shutter speed, depending on the depth of field or motion you want to achieve; meter on a gray tone; and then set the third control accordingly. It's very important you pay attention to your inside camera meter, because it is your measuring cup, so to speak. Once you meter on the gray tone, then you can shoot your subject (and ignore the meter). 

    See how easy this is? Actually, it's not that easy. But once you comprehend the numbers game, it actually makes sense.
    Keep in mind that this might all sound very confusing, but we talked about this lesson during class. So, I hope it makes sense to them.
    I could go on and on, but after a while the numbers get all jumbled, so I'll stop here and let it all soak in. 

    (Sometime soon: lenses and white balance, and whatever else we talked about.)

Students prepare to capture me running back and forth for a panning exercise, and doing jump jacks to stop and blur motion.

Welcome to the world of scholastic photojournalism! Your first lesson...

Welcome to a new semester! This is a Storify lesson I put together for our first day of class.

Steller offers visual storytelling app (outdated)

   There's a cool app in Apple town, and I like it.
   As a photojournalism and multimedia instructor, I'm always searching for different ways to present and share visual storytelling content. It is certainly a challenge keeping up with the multitude of new multimedia tools constantly being developed. 

   This blog post is about just one of those tools, the Steller app for the iPhone and iPod Touch, released in 2014, and now it's available for the Android.

   This mobile-first digital storytelling app combines text, photos and videos in a clean, visually-appealing format. The story includes a title page, and up to a total of 20 pages that are taken directly from your iPhone photo collection. 

   Once you download the free app, you hit the + button in the bottom middle of the page, choose your first image or text page, select your design your story, and continue selecting each page one at a time. You can design the page as you go, or go back to it later to delete or add pages. Once you are finished, Preview and the Publish. You can then share to Twitter, Facebook or your blog. It is that simple.

   The beauty of this app is that you view the story like you're reading a book. The pages turn!
There are a few drawbacks, though:

• Viewers not familiar with the app don't know that the story needs to be manually opened, and the pages turned by swiping the page or hitting the right or left computer arrows. 
• You can't share the complete story on Instagram (at least that's how it used to be); only a single page selected from the story.
• The videos loop, and viewers might not know to swipe out of them.
• Shooting vertical video makes more sense here because you can fill the entire screen. If you shoot horizontal, there's too much white space top and bottom.
• The archiving of these stories is worrisome. How long will this app survive? But this isn't a big problem because this app was chosen as one of the Best Apps of 2014 by Apple, and you still have the original images in your phone's photo gallery. 
• Elements in stories published back in 2014 to at least 2016 are now outdated, thus you really shouldn't try editing them. You'll get this message: "You are editing an old story with outdated themes and features. Some functionality will be restricted.
• And in 2019, your free themes are limited to two: classico and Noir.

   Photojournalists don't have a lot of input over how our photos are published on the web and in the newspaper. But this app gives us back a little power. 

   Consider the many ways visual stories can be told. Take, for example, at this high school basketball game I shot, there were four ways my photos were published:

Screen grab from Toledo Blade newspaper's front sports page.

1. Instagram. I decided to start out by shooting from a high angle, so I went to the top of the bleachers, in a corner facing the basket. I took a panoramic photo with my cell and posted it on Instagram.
2. Steller. Then I remembered the Steller app. To tell a different story, I avoided being redundant with images, shooting photos and videos with my phone that I wouldn't have shot with my two DSLRs. 
3. Toledo Blade newspaper. Because we have an early deadline for the print version of the newspaper, I transmitted my best 12 photos from the first two periods via Photo Mechanic FTP using an air card. This caused me to miss the entire third period.
4. Toledo Blade website. I continued shooting in the fourth period, and sent the rest of the images for a photo gallery on the website.

   This app can be a powerful way to get our social media savvy youth, who often turn to YouTube and Snapchat for their 'news,' to view real stories about real people, places and things. And it's a fun way for us veteran shooters to have fun, too!

   For these reasons, I'm think this storytelling app is worth using and teaching.
Here are a few links to stories and reviews on Steller (though these links are dated, as well):
JEA Digital Media article on Steller
Storybench story on Steller and mobile reporting
Tutorials on the VSCO Cam app 

On shooting sports: Covering action, reaction, coaches and fans

ACTION: Western Michigan's Darius Phillips breaks up a pass to Toledo's Cody Thompson at the University of Toledo's Glass Bowl in Toledo, Ohio on Friday. (Blade photos by Lori King)

REACTION: Alonzo Russell cries as he's ejected for targeting.

There is a saying in the photojournalism field that if you can shoot sports, you can shoot anything.

   This can be true for several reasons:

• • Action shots require precise timing and an innate understanding of fast shutter speeds.
• • Reaction shots can be just as important as action shots, so you need a keen awareness of what's happening before and after key plays. This includes capturing the antics of coaches on the sidelines.
• • Fans like to see themselves, too, so searching for strong fan shots is essential for making a slideshow interesting and compelling.

  • Critical thinking is definitely employed here by figuring out issues like where to shoot from and how to get the best angles; how to best ID the players and coaches; and how to deal with other factors, like weather, substandard camera equipment and limited access.

    The current assignment for the Wayne State photojournalism class is shooting a sports event. As part of that assignment, they are required to post their strongest action, coach and fan photos. They'll also edit their best dozen or so for a slideshow, produced in Adobe Premiere CC.

REACTION: Asantay Brown is taken off the field with an injury.

    A sports slideshow is a mini-portfolio for the vision and technical control of the shooters, so I encouraged the students to 'circle the wagon' to capture the flavor of the event.

   To demonstrate the assignment requirement, I posted these photos I took last night at the University of Toledo vs. Western Michigan football game.

    A big lesson I want to discuss here is that journalists are not cheerleaders for the team we cover, nor are we prevented from shooting moments that are hard to witness. Case in point - when Toledo's Alonzo Russell cried as he was ejected from the game for targeting WMU's Asantay Brown. Or when Brown was taken off the field on a stretcher.

    After the game, as we photogs worked up our images in the press box, another photographer asked me if a close-up shot of Brown's face on the stretcher was appropriate to send to his client. Both myself and the USA Today photographer told him to definitely send it, and let the editors decide whether to run it or not. I also shot that photo and sent it, and it ran in the newspaper today.

    So, here are samples of what I'm looking for when the students post their best three photos to their blogs.     

   Of course, I'm very aware they probably don't have the access or the long lenses that I have. But they need to do what it takes with what they have to get the job done, as do every college photographer assigned to cover their teams.
Link to Photo Gallery
Link to Toledo Blade sports columnist Dave Hackenberg's column, "We're not here to cheer for your team." 

FANS: Young Toledo fans don't get their wish after the Rockets lost their last home game to WMU.

COACH: Toledo's Corey Jones walks hand-in-hand with head coach Matt Campbell after their loss to WMU. It is these kind of captured moments that add emotion and mood to the game.

Q&A 7: Free Press photojournalist Eric Seals turns to video for storytelling

Automobile junk yard. (Photos by Eric Seals)

Eric Seals

Sometimes there comes a point in our lives when we feel it’s time to give back.

   For photojournalists, that means mentoring our youth, or going into classrooms to share what we’ve honed throughout our careers.

   Sharing with others is something that Detroit Free Press photo and video journalist Eric Seals has been doing for the past 15 years.

   He wrote on his website that he believes in the ‘reach one, teach one’ philosophy. He does that through doing job shadowing, mentoring others, and teaching at workshops and seminars around the country to those interested in this “amazing profession.”

   Hired by the Free Press in 1999, the Southfield, Michigan native has spent most of his career at the Motor City, home of rapper Eminem, Chrysler and Lake Erie. It is also a city recovering from bankruptcy, and suffering from high crime and neighborhood blight. But the good and bad of the city gives Seals plenty of stories to cover.

   Seals earned a degree in journalism in 1993 from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He is a two-time MPPA Multimedia Photographer of the Year winner, a national Webby Award recipient, and has earned several POYi wins, NPPA-BOP awards and 10 Michigan Emmys.

   As part of his teaching philosophy, Seals has been busy both shooting and mentoring. He recently returned from teaching at the University of Maryland School of Journalism. He also showed his Great Lakes shipwreck documentary that was selected for viewing at the Utopia Film Festival in Washington D.C.

   Over the past several months he has been busy teaching about video storytelling at the NPPA Multimedia Immersion workshop at Syracuse University, and at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank in St. Petersburg, Florida.

   I am proud to welcome Eric into my Wayne State University Digital Photojournalism classroom on Oct. 29. And then on Nov. 19 he will use Periscope to give a virtual tour of the Detroit Free Press, bringing his beloved newspaper to us, in our classroom.

   To celebrate this wonderful collaboration between WSU and the Free Press, Seals has been chosen as my seventh Q & A subject for this blog.

Q: When did you first become interested in visual storytelling?

A: I became interested in visual storytelling I guess when I was a kid who grew up reading the Detroit Free Press and looking at the pictures in the newspaper. After a while, I got to the point where instead of looking at the pictures I wanted to see the moments with my own eyes. I wanted to witness it for myself. Photojournalism was the only way to do that, and be creative while being that witness. I took a photography class in high school, which started me on my fun, challenging and amazing journey into the world of visual storytelling.

Q: You began shooting video in 2008, at the beginning of the ‘video explosion’ in photojournalism. What inspired you to jump on the video bandwagon?

A: I don’t know if there was anything that inspired me to get into video storytelling. It was more like the Free Press gave me a traditional video camera in 2008 and said, “We want you to start doing video for freep.com.” I just took to it, and spent lots of time doing self-teaching from watching lots documentaries and learning on YouTube and Google.

   I loved going to movies as a kid, and still do now. Perhaps I see what I do as an extension of “making movies,” but I do it with a journalism twist; telling truth with a camera unlike movie directors who do take after take.

 We have several talented photojournalists on staff who shoot video stories, so it’s nice to be able see their work and bounce ideas off each other.

Q: What’s your opinion on shooting stills and video at the same time? How do you determine which one works best for the situation?

A: It depends on the assignment or story to be honest. Sometimes doing both just needs to be done. I recently had an assignment at the Detroit Zoo, where I had to shoot thousands of crickets that are fed to the various animals. I knew a short video clip of the crickets was needed, especially with that cricket chirping sound, along with a short interview with the cricket caretaker. I also knew I needed stills for the paper and the web. It’s all about prioritizing what’s needed when, and for how long, in terms of shooting stills and video.

   Other times, especially when I’m working on long form video storytelling, the video takes priority over stills, and when needed I can always pull frame grabs off the video, seeing how the quality of video is so much better these days. And sometimes I’ll have one camera with one lens to shoot stills instead of switching back and forth on the same camera.

   Another good think to do in long form storytelling is allow yourself an hour or two off and on to just focus on stills and not video. This works well when you’ve got good command of the story, it’s structure and a good body of work in terms of b-roll, etc.

Giving back to students. (Twitter screen grab)

Q: There are numerous storytelling tools available to us today. What tools do you use to tell your stories? Can they actually get in the way of storytelling?

A: I use a variety of tools from Canon HDSLR’s to Canon C100’s, GoPro’s and sliders for video storytelling.

   I’m a big camera gear geek, and yes, various tools can get in the way of storytelling if you let it. What needs to be done is keep your eyes focused on the main thing - the story, the story, the story! Besides the story you also need good characters, good audio and a really good edit to keep viewers hooked into what you are trying to tell them.

   You can have the best gear known to mankind but if your story isn’t good, doesn’t make sense or have a good focus then viewers won’t stick with it and move onto something else.

Q: What advice can you give aspiring photojournalists today?

A: I’d say find and study other photojournalists whose work makes you think and feel something, work that has moments and emotion to it. It’s that kind of work that viewers want to see or watch.

   Go get a coffee, head to a library or a bookstore, find the photography section and plant yourself. Pour through the books, study how composition, graphics, light, layering is used by some of the amazing talent out there. Even right here in Detroit at the Free Press we have talented photojournalists who are very nice, willing to share what they’ve learned.

   Show and share you work with others who are better than you, those that set the bar high for you to reach. Ask for a critique of your work. Keep an open mind about what they say. Take their constructive criticism well; learn and improve yourself based on what they say, then go out there and put it into practice.

   Fail and fail again, and learn from it - that’s how you get better.

  Embrace video. It’s so important if you want a job at newspapers these days. Watch lots of documentaries; find video journalists working at newspapers whose work you also like and watch their work; and reach out to them for help and advice. You have to be really proactive if you truly love what you do and want to get better at this amazing profession.

   I’m constantly sharing my video stories to those out there who set the bar high for me. I get torn down when they look at my videos, but with those little pieces I learn, grow and can put those pieces back together.

   I often say, “Don’t tell me my strengths, show me my weaknesses.” THAT is how you get better!

   Follow Eric on Twitter and Instagram:  @ericseals

Waiting for marshmallows.

Proven innocent.

Eric's visit to the Wayne State digital photojournalism class Oct. 29.

Links to a few of Eric's video stories:

http://tinyurl.com/DennisHale

http://tinyurl.com/GreatLakesFreighter

http://tinyurl.com/KadenCook

http://tinyurl.com/GreatLakesFlowerLady

http://tinyurl.com/GreatLakesShipwreckHunter
http://tinyurl.com/DetroitPotholes
http://tinyurl.com/PBBinMichigan

CMA Storify lesson on Photojournalism: Tools of the Trade

My Storify #CMA14 lecture on Photojournalism: Tools of the Trade

  Finally! I've been waiting an entire year to attend my second College Media Association conference, and the time has come.
   This conference will be special for me, not only because am I presenting two workshops (cell phone use in the media and tools of the photojournalism trade), but because five student editors from the Owens Outlook online newspaper staff and Intro to Photojournalism course are going with me.
   The editor-in-chief, assistant editor/webmaster, sports editor, news editor and the features editor are all taking the trip with me in my RV to Philadelphia on Wednesday. They will not only gain valuable information from the dozens of workshops they will attend, but it pretty much cements their dedication to returning next semester!
   The following is one of two Storify lessons I prepared the conference.
   This lesson is for the Tool of the Trade session. Since I only have 50 minutes, which is definitely not enough time to get too deep into any one topic, I used Storify so they can view the articles and YouTube videos on their own.
   Thus, I wouldn't necessarily consider my workshops as a teaching gig, but more discussions, and I'm the moderator.

On why PJ interns are a kick in the pants to veteran staffers

   Most photojournalism majors are required to intern at a newspaper during their scholastic careers.

   Internships are necessary for building strong portfolios, making employer contacts and gaining on-the-job experience. Internships are also their first paying gigs, though the pay is often below living wage. Some students intern multiple times, and even a year or two after graduation.

   When I was a PJ major at Kent State I did a yearlong internship my senior year at the Warren Tribune in Warren, Ohio. I was hired as a part-time staffer for $5 an hour, and worked 32 hours a week. I could have stayed there indefinitely since it wasn’t an official intern position, but after graduation I moved to Toledo and started stringing for the Associated Press.

This is a story/photo package I did in 1983 for the First Armored Div. newspaper, Ironsides.

   The Tribune was my first civilian news photographer job. Photo editor Rob Englehardt said he hired me for my military background. I had a weak photo portfolio, though I had a fair amount of writing clips that included my own photos, like the clip at left. 

   I wasn’t much of a threat to the full-timers at the Tribune. They were confident in their skills, considering they didn’t have to deal with any of the social media stuff and high tech equipment we use today. A photojournalist’s life was easier back then. Once you mastered those dinosaur film cameras, well, the average citizen couldn’t compete!

    Over the years the Toledo Blade has hired dozens of interns.  I don’t remember most of their names but I certainly remember the impact they’ve all made.

   Our current intern is Jeff Smith, a recent graduate from Central Michigan University. He is the epitome of the 21^st Century photojournalist. He blogs, tweets and Instagrams.

   So why do I think interns are a kick in the pants to us old timers? Because they have a fire in their bellies that sometimes is only smoldering in many long-time staffers. They are hungry for a job; to make a difference; to be a part of a visual team that feeds off of each other for inspiration and story ideas.

   Interns are idealistic. They haven't yet been jaded, and everything is new and fresh to them because they haven't shot the same events year after year after year after year!

   The enthusiasm of interns can either be contagious or threatening. It's up to each veteran photographer to choose how they want to handle the new kid. Contagious or threatening? I've felt both ways.

   We should do our best to feed off of each other. We can't deny they inject enthusiasm into the workplace, while we teach them camera skills and ethical/legal values we've honed over the years. 

   Reciprocity at its best.

Welcome back!

    Greetings scholastic journalists! 
    Prepare to be educated about the field of photojournalism and the growing role social media plays in our lives. Here are a few highlights from the course:

• Learn how to shoot feature, portrait and sports assignments;
• Know your law, ethics and photographer's rights;
• Use social media to share yours stories and lessons learned;
• Work as a team to document an event and produce a Soundslides story;
• Build a portfolio.

    New to the course this semester is the requirement to tweet. Blogging and tweeting are essential skills to learn in a very competitive market. 
    I struggled with the decision on whether to add Twitter to the curriculum, considering this is only an intro class. Since my goal as an instructor is to prepare the next generation of citizen communicators, how could I not include it? But tweeting is not an additional lesson; it simply replaces the discussion board, which students were required to use last semester. The discussion board is a good tool to practice writing skills, but their comments were enclosed in a bubble. That changes with Twitter, a micro-blogging tool that is a nice addition to the storytelling toolbox.
    So, let's get to work, shall we?

Photojournalism: Two skills, one class

   It's seven weeks into the semester and the students finally have their first shooting assignment. The timing couldn't be better. They are instructed to document the weather, so this weekend should give them lots of photo opportunities. Toledo is supposed to get up to nine inches of snow.
   This shooting assignment will challenge the students in many ways. First, they are tasked to approach strangers dealing with weather, like shoveling or sledding, document the activity and collect caption information. That's the journalism part. The photography part is knowing how to take photos in the snow. Knowing how to properly meter a white scene is key to accomplishing this assignment successfully.
   That's the complexity of this class: photography (math) + journalism (writing) = photojournalism. These are two distinct skills that are learned in one class. The wonderful writing in their blogs prove they are ready to use their cameras. Like one student blogged in her most recent post, "I am a photographer...I did not sign up for grammar."
   Yes, you did, Kathy, and you're doing a wonderful job.