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New Years Resolutions

Hello fellow photography enthusiasts.  These last several months have been both painful and informative for me.  I have been constantly exposed to the challenges of remaining a traditional film photographer, while observing the relatively smooth pace of those digital shooters around me.

But don't read too much into it.  I will not be changing my position.  As a matter of fact, I will be stepping even further away from the line in 2007.  Many, many people both experienced and unexperienced photographers alike will argue that I must be totally crazy for shooting film.  Some will theorize that I shoot film because I can't afford digital.  Others will speculate that I will come around eventually.

The truth of the matter is this.  I have shot digital.  The majority of my photography understanding stems from my continuous exposure to digital photography via camera stores, book stores and the internet.

I will remain a traditional photographer for the following reasons:

1. I personally value the work that I do as a photographer. 
2. I believe that film photography is still cheaper than digital photography.  I know I will hear many disagree with this point, since it is one of the arguments that camera salespersons continue to present.  As a traditional photographer of many years.  I believe that you must include your digital workflow when comparing prices from these different mediums.  Every roll of film I buy serves two purposes.  It is the shooting media as well as the storage media.  Digital photographers will have to include: cds, backup harddrives and computers to this equation.  At the most I will add a fireproof file cabinet.
3. I can digitize my film at any point.  This includes individual slides, negatives or prints.  The end result is the same.
4. My specialty is Social Documentary Photography, not Sports photography, not spot news, not event photography, not club photography, not fashion photography or model work.  I believe all of these areas greatly benefit by digital photography.  The work that I aspire to do will not require me delivering photos on a daily basis.  As a matter of fact, my work might not be visible beyond myself and several editors for three to six months at a time.  With that kinda time table, the immediacy of digital looses its luster.
5. The delete button or trash can icon does not exist on my camera.  I am very grateful for its lack of existence.  Erasing a photos will not help me in larger scope of accomplishment.  I may shoot for a client, but I will also shoot for myself.  I believe that individual frames show more than exposure, composition, subject, lighting, etc.  Individual frames also speaks to the photographer who has taken the photo.  I believe that you can learn about the photographer by examining both the outtakes as well as the published works.  I personally am interested in seeing photos that I took while I was not in my best moods.
6. I will eventually turn over all of my work to my daughter and her eventual family with the intent that they will learn more about me and what I have been exposed to.  I believe that this gift of imagery from around the world is priceless.  I will not trust untested platforms and technologies to  tell my story 30-40 years from now.

Why Film and Not Digital?

5 Reasons to Shoot Film
Five cases when film beats digital hands-down.

By Russell Hart
December 2006

Digital is the earnest child of photography, always striving to better itself. Film is the adult, having had more than a century to mature. That's why there are times when film -- and only film -- is the best insurance that you'll get the result you want. Here are five arguments in its favor.

1) ULTIMATE IMAGE SHARPNESS
For most purposes, digital will do. But unless you're shooting with an ultra high-resolution digital back or top pro-level DSLR, film still produces the sharpest possible images. A 35mm frame converted to a digital file by today's desktop scanners simply clobbers the sharpness of a typical consumer DSLR.

Yes, you can sharpen a digital image in software. And with most DSLRs you must, because images are considerably softened by anti-aliasing filters that keep their sensors from recording jagged edges and moiré patterns. Yet if you overdo your sharpening, the image can take on a distractingly "crispy" appearance. The sharpness you get from film is more natural looking.

2) A SPECIFIC "LOOK"
Films have personality; DSLRs don't. While many DSLRs let you dial in higher or lower saturation and contrast, those crude adjustments can't compare to the richness of film, whether Velvia's crisp, saturated look or the delicate tonal shoulder of Tri-X. (Black-and-white is a particular challenge for digital, especially in-camera.)

You can always mess with curves and other factors once you get a digitally captured image into editing software. There are even programs that mimic the qualities of specific films. Whether they succeed is a judgment call, but you won't get the inimitable look of Kodachrome out of the box.

3) WIDEST TONAL RANGE
Digital SLRs are dynamically challenged. In contrasty light they have a hell of a time with highlight and shadow detail. Sure, they've improved, and RAW helps. But they have far to go before they match a color negative's ability to lasso photons high and low.

Film can be manipulated to soak up even more of a scene's tonal extremes. You can rein in highlights by "pulling," or shortening, the development of b&w film. You compensate for this by adding exposure when shooting, improving shadow detail. You can overexpose color negative film by as much as four stops to increase shadow detail and reduce contrast, without damaging highlight nuances.

Again, some super-duper digital backs claim to match or exceed the range captured by film. If you can afford them, go for it -- and bring along your laptop.

4) ON A FIXED BUDGET
At a given level of quality, film is still less costly than digital. On the low end, a single-use camera loaded with color negative film costs under $10; the cheapest digital point-and-shoots run nearly $100.

On the high end, consider what a well-appointed 35mm SLR will set you back these days: a couple hundred bucks with lens. Color film and processing costs maybe 15 cents a shot. Compare that to the price of the least expensive DSLR, still about $600 (though over time it will save you a lot in film and processing costs).

5) WIDEST ANGLE OF VIEW WITH YOUR EXISTING LENSES
True, camera makers have created some excellent wide-angle zooms, and even fisheyes, for their digital SLRs. These lenses offset the smaller-than-35mm image sensor found in all but a couple of DSLRs. But many photographers choose the same brand of DSLR that they used for 35mm because they can shoot with their existing lenses. The problem is that the DSLR's smaller image sensor puts horse blinkers on those lenses, wasting much of their available image circle.

For example, the nearly 75-degree angle of view produced on the full 35mm frame by a 24mm wide-angle (maybe my all-time favorite 35mm focal length) narrows to just over 50 degrees -- in effect, a 36mm or 38mm lens -- when you put that same lens on a DSLR with an APS-C-sized image sensor (Nikons, Pentaxes, the Sony, and most Canons).

So if you want the full goodness of a made-for-35mm lens' angle of view, put it on your aging Canon EOS A2E instead of your Digital Rebel XT, or even your old Nikon F3 instead of your spanking-new Nikon D200.

Hitchhiking across the USA

I recently came across this website of a recent college graduate.  Cody Smart a fellow SportsShooter.com photographer hitchhiked across the USA.  He photographed much of his journey.  The photos taken are nothing less than impressive.  Images from this journey could easily be book material.  I can't wait to see some words behind some of the photos.

His website is www.codysmart.com/hitchhike

Copyright Protections for Photographers

Copyright is the legal concept that once an original expression of a creative process is fixed in a tangible medium, like a photograph on film, that expression belongs to the creator who has the exclusive right to control and authorize its reproduction, distribution, public display, or performance. Copyright is the single greatest protection that any creator of intellectual property has at their disposal. It is what allows us to control the use of, and to profit from, the fruits of our creative efforts and to enforce certain claims against even much larger corporations. Copyright is not intended to stifle the sharing of information, merely to guarantee that the creators of that information have a right to make a decent living. There are plenty of exceptions to copyright protection written into the laws which guarantee the free exchange of information for academics, research, news, teaching, and other legitimate intellectual pursuits.

Articles, photographs, and music on the internet and in other digital formats are all covered by the same copyright protections as more traditional printed, displayed, or performed creative works. Now that the Web has become an open worldwide marketplace, it needs to be moderated by the same controls that guide commerce and advertising in other venues. In a free market economy, the right to buy and sell goods lies with the owners of those goods, not just anyone who happens to find them lying around. For example, when you walk by a grocery store with displays of goods both inside and outside, you know that the outside displays are there to attract your attention with the implication that you should come inside and buy something. They are not implying that you may just take an apple and walk away– that would be stealing. Likewise, by posting copyrighted information on the Web, we are putting it out there with the intention of it being looked at and perhaps purchased, but not stolen.

End-users of copyrighted material have the legal responsibility to obtain permission to use the work before doing so, and this permission is granted with a usage license from the copyright holder. A usage license is merely a simple contract which grants to a certain user the right to use a work in a certain way, in a certain place, for a certain period of time. A license for a photograph should specifically state who the user is, how large the image may be used, how many times, in what specific media format(s), and for how long. Any uses not specifically granted in a license remain with the copyright holder, by law.

The complete handout/explanation!

Pro Copyright Petition

Sign the PETITION

We, the undersigned members of an international network of photographers, journalists, filmmakers, documentary makers, visual artists, and writers, are collected together here to make known our profound concern regarding the content and consequences of the proposed Orphan Works bill.
We believe that a free society flourishes in relation to its intellectual freedoms. In order for a free society to benefit from the creative efforts of its members, and to guarantee the fertility and integrity of such works, these efforts must be protected as rigorously as our fundamental rights of free speech, free assembly, and a free press. At the heart of the Amendments to the Constitution rests the incontrovertible belief that the tyranny of unchecked powers and interests is a threat to just governance and the social good. As such they must be subject to the rule of law and prevented from transgressing the rights of private individuals or groups of people who do not exercise great authority politically or economically.
In order to form a more perfect Union, promote the general Welfare, and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and to our Posterity, we must ensure that the vitality and integrity of the Imagination not be infringed, and that the life of the mind be given adequate scope and protection for it to continue driving the technological and humanitarian progress of all societies.
The American Constitution states that one of the duties of Congress is “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;” (article 1, section 8, clause 8). This providential clause has ensured the progressive development of what was once a small and defenseless nation, pitted against the seemingly unlimited power and resources of the European industrializing nations, and virtually guaranteed that the new ideas and innovative vision of its pioneering peoples would be nurtured, propagated, and guarded for the common good of the nation. There is a clear and vital relationship between our ideas and our social growth: the health of the body politic depends upon preserving it.

The Job Board for Media Professionals...

It has come to my attention that some people still don't know about this site. Journalism Jobs.com has been around for several years. They are a national job board for journalist. Periodically you will find photographer/photojournalist related job listings here from small newspapers to national publications.

I caution you not to apply or accept any work for hire job, but other than that, there are some good listings.

Journalism Jobs

Rev. Lowery has a Roast

© 2001-2006 Frank Johnson/Shootfilm.net. All Rights Reserved.

SCLC founder Rev. Lowery recently celebrated his 85th birthday.  Here Sue Ross is seen taking a break from her griot activities.

I have several hundred photos from this event.  Scanning the last several months worth of photos has me backlogged potentially to the end of the year.

Kodak and Civil Rights

I recently came across this small gallery of civil rights images by Charles Moore on Kodak's website. In 1989, Charles Moore received the first Kodak Crystal Eagle Award for Impact in Photojournalism.

Charles Moore is a member of Black Star, a photo agency out of New York.

Here is a brief excerpt from the site and links to the gallery.

Charles Moore didn't plan to photograph the civil rights movement. In September, 1958, he was a 27-year-old photographer for the Montgomery (Alabama) Advertiser. When an argument broke out between the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and two policemen, Moore was the only photographer on the scene. His striking pictures of Dr. King's arrest were distributed nationwide by the Associated Press, and one was published in Life magazine. A new career had begun.

Over the next seven years, Moore made some of the most significant pictures of the civil rights movement. As a contract photographer for Life magazine, Moore traveled the South to cover the evolving struggle. His photographs helped bring the reality of the situation to the magazine's huge audience, which at the time comprised over half the adults in the United States. According to former U.S. Senator Jacob Javits, Moore's pictures "helped to spur passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964."

Kodak/Moore Gallery
The site is a little difficult to navigate. Look for the arrows under the captions or click on the words in the grey bars.

Photo Archival ....

I recently received another podcast from the Lenswork magazine. For those who might not be familiar. Lenswork is essentially a fine arts magazine that is printed and has a digital companion volume on cd. The magazine can be found at most major bookstores and online. Their website is www.lenswork.com

This particular podcast speaks about the importance of taking care when capturing a photograph and the value of your work to others that you may not even encounter. Included in the podcast is a testimony from a photographer who photographed a woman in a window who passed before he could return with the photo.

You can find the entire podcast here.

International SCLC Headquarters groundbreaking

It’s a “New Day…A New Way,” as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) made history today by breaking ground for its new and much anticipated $3 million international headquarters located within the historical Auburn Avenue district in Atlanta, Georgia.

© 2001-2006 Frank Johnson/Shootfilm.net. All Rights Reserved.

Rev. Lowery gets a helping hand after speaking briefly at the SCLC groundbreaking ceremony.

© 2001-2006 Frank Johnson/Shootfilm.net. All Rights Reserved.

Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker speaks with community leaders during the SCLC groundbreaking.