Still photography

Occupy Portland Pictures

My work, Still photography

Shot for ZUMA Press. If you want to license these images, please contact sales@zumapress.com.

Late Saturday night and throughout Sunday, police squared off with Occupy Portland protestors while attempting to enforce Mayor Sam Adams’ 12:01 a.m. Sunday deadline for protestors to vacate the two downtown parks they have occupied since early October. Approximately 5,000 people showed up to defy the mayor’s orders, overwhelming police until Sunday afternoon when police were able to clear the parks and dismantle tents and other structures. Police arrested at least 50, used pepper spray on at least one person, but largely the protestors were nonviolent. Police, mounted on horses, charged the crowd on one occasion in an attempt to break up the thousands of people that had filled downtown streets and blocked traffic. A protestor who was later arrested threw a firework at the mounted police, startling their horses amidst the chaos and causing one officer to be lightly injured.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Occupy Seattle Photos – Police and Pepper Spray | Seattle Photographer

My work, Seattle, Still photography

Shot for ZUMA Press. If you want to license these images please contact sales@zumapress.com.

 

Wednesday was a chilly and rainy November evening but hundreds of Occupy Seattle protestors showed up to show opposition to Jamie Dimon’s visit to the Seattle Sheraton hotel, where he was speaking to the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business. Dimon is the CEO of JPMorgan Chase. Police showed up in force, with rubber bullets, paintballs and riot gear at the ready, but they only used pepper spray sporadically on the protestors. See some of my photographs below …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Google Maps Photojournalism | Seattle Photographer

Google Maps, Other people's work, Published work, Seattle, Still photography, Tech stuff, Thoughts

Is this the new face of photojournalism? Google Maps is certainly part of the future of photojournalism, like it or not. (Related: See my Google Maps photo essay.)

Below is a screen shot of SeattlePI.com and you can see how they have utilized a Google Maps Street View image for reporting purposes. It’s very sad that a woman was shot and in this case an actual human photographer I think would be able to cover this story quite well, but instead we have a Google Maps image taking the place of traditional photojournalism. Of course I’m sure the SeattlePI.com journalists would agree that using a human photojournalist would be ideal – and seeing Google Maps in this story probably comes down to a case of budget constraints.

I’m actually surprised that I have not seen more Google Maps images in the press, but I am wondering how the readers are responding to this. Right now there are four comments on the story but they all relate to the rather shocking content of the story, not the use of a Google Maps image. My guess is that viewers/readers do not care one bit. They probably do care that the image presented is pretty boring, but that is not necessarily because it is a Google Maps image. There are plenty of pretty and interesting Google Maps images out there, but just like traditional photojournalism it takes time, energy and expertise to find those images.

For me, I really am intrigued by the use of Google Maps images for photojournalism, reportage and photo essays, but the image below isn’t exactly a good supporting argument. Aren’t I afraid of losing my job? Not really. I actually think that the more that Google Maps images pop up, the more that media consumers will realize that their lives are constantly under surveillance. For this reason, and others, I think folks will begin to remember why they love images made by real, empathetic, human photojournalists. There is something great that people love about images made by other humans, and the screen shot below can help with understanding that. However, as a photojournalist myself I’ve found that using Google Maps can be rewarding. Part of my graduate school capstone work included a Google Maps Street View photo essay.

 

Breaking Barriers | Seattle Photographer

Diversity, Multimedia, My work, Other people's work, Published work, Still photography, UW Bothell, Video

I’m working with the Diversity Recruitment & Outreach team at UW Bothell again, this time to document a special project at McKnight Middle School in Renton, Washington. UW Bothell student volunteers are spending time with the middle school students each week to build leadership and communication skills as well as self and cultural awareness. The volunteers are also facilitating conversations about how McKnight Middle School can better serve these students and set them up for success in college and beyond. The middle school student group consists of mostly African American and Latino young men, which are largely underrepresented groups on college campuses. Programs like this one can hopefully change that. It really is a remarkable program.

At the end of the year we will be producing a short documentary film that explains what we were able to accomplish. In the meantime, you can watch the first video installment of a series of updates about this outreach work. I am doing some of the filming, taking photographs, and most importantly mentoring a UW Bothell senior, Amen Mengesha, who is the director of the project. He is a media production star of the future, so be sure to watch that first video installment here, or below, to see what he created. I’ve included some of my photographs from week two below.

 

 

Diwali Pictures | Seattle Photographer

Diversity, My work, Still photography

Shot for ZUMA Press. If you want to license these images please contact sales@zumapress.com.

 

Happy Diwali!

These Diwali pictures are from celebrations near Seattle on the first day of Diwali, October 26, 2011. Special thanks to the Hindu Temple & Cultural Center as well as the Gurudwara Sikh Centre of Seattle for your hospitality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scholarships for Photojournalists Returning to School | Seattle Photographer

Still photography, Uncategorized

Six grants of $4,000 each. What a great way to support photojournalists who want to be more educated and be industry leaders.

Why did they have to wait until after my graduation to create this fund?? Well it’s too late for me, but you should apply! See the full announcement below from the NPPA’s National Press Photographers Foundation.

I returned to the University of Washington Bothell to pursue a master’s degree and to be a Seattle photographer again after working at my first newspaper job at The Park Record in Park City, UT; I would have loved to see more scholarships supporting photojournalists who want to be more informed and educated.

 

 

Here is the info:

 

New Scholarships Available for Photojournalists Returning to School

The National Press Photographers Foundation is pleased to announce the availability of new scholarship money for photojournalists who have returned to school.NPPF president Mike Smith said the funds are being made available through the Foundation, the National Press Photographers Association, and a grant from the Author’s Coalition of America.“If you are a photojournalist with three years experience and your work has been published in newspapers, magazines or through agencies, and if you have returned to school in the past year, you are eligible to apply,” Smith said.

“These scholarships are particularly important now when so many photographers have been forced to learn new skills just to keep their jobs, much less find a new one. We are fortunate to have some money to support photographers who are trying to keep up with the head-spinning changes in their industry.”

Six grants of $4,000 each, called the NPPF-NPPA Career Expansion Scholarships, will be awarded this year.

The application deadline is November 15, 2011. Applicants must include a resume, completed application forms (which can be downloaded at http://nppf.org) and recommendation letters from their instructors.

Send your application materials to: Tom Hardin, NPPF vice president, 1622 Forest Hill Drive, Louisville, KY, 40205. Hardin can be contacted by eMail to answer questions about applying, and his eMail address is hardin@aye.net.

 

Canon 1D X camera announcement | Seattle Photographer

Gear, Still photography, Tech stuff, Thoughts

Exciting news – I just saw the announcement of the upcoming release of the Canon 1D X, which combines the 1Ds line of camera bodies and the 1D line. You can see the official press release here.

Before I can actually get my hands on it (can I borrow $6,800?) I’ll have to say that the Canon 1D X will be a useful update for photojournalists and filmmakers/videographers because of a few new things – first, it is now a full frame camera body, unlike the 1D series, which had a 1.3x crop factor. That meant that you didn’t see everything the lens gave the camera; everything was cropped/zoomed in by a factor of 1.3. Now, the 1D X matches the 5D mark II in full frame capability, so the image will be much nicer. Additionally, you can adjust the audio levels on the 1D X while recording video. Before – and with the Canon 5D mark II – you had to pick an audio level setting and leave it. On-the-go adjustments are crucial for filmmakers, especially when it comes to audio.

Another great thing is that the 1D X shoots 60p video, which means you get 60 frames per second so that you can get more out of your slow-mo shots, especially with the help of Final Cut Pro plugins like Twixtor. Again, the 5D mark II lags behind – with a max of 30p (though the 7D shoots 60p as does the 1D mark IV).

There is a whole host of other new features and crazy upgrades (14 frames per second for sports … or LOTS of pictures of your cat), but I just wanted to highlight a couple of my favorite things. We’ll see how the thing functions when it actually comes out and if there are any issues like with the last time Canon released such a heavily redesigned product. 1D mark III auto focus defection nightmares anyone?

 

Occupy Seattle Protest Photos | Seattle Photographer

My work, Seattle, Still photography

Shot for ZUMA Press. If you want to license these images please contact sales@zumapress.com.

This is a selection of images from the ongoing Occupy Seattle protests here in Seattle, Washington that are organized in conjunction with the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York. Protestors on Saturday, October 15 illegally set up 150 tents and stayed in Westlake Park until police finally removed them Monday morning.