Spontaneous Portrait??? - (or give them what they want, not what they ask for)

It’s nice when a portrait presents itself from a real situation.

The assignment was pretty nebulous, as they often are. I was asked to take pictures of a new holiday market, but from the request, it was clear the story was about this local business man and his “entrepreneurial spirit.” While shooting the safety shots of people shopping at the market, I noticed that Christopher was on the sidewalk trying to drum up business like a modern-day carnival hawker. A couple of minutes later, and I have a shot that really tells much more about the subject than a contrived picture of him standing stiffly with the market in the background. And I get a great quote as a bonus - “It’s a little Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey, but whatever it takes takes to to get people out here,” says Lancette. Remember, it’s photoJOURNALISM.

Moral(s) of the story -
1. Read between the lines of the photo-request and give them what they want, not what they asked for (well, along with what they ask for - just in case).
2. If time allows, natural behavior trumps a posed portrait hands down.

How To Say Goodbye To A Season - (when it doesn't end in jubilation)

One of our local high school football teams made it to the state finals. After dominating the first half, they lost the game in a heartbreaking overtime - no jubilation shots for me. I really wanted shots that respectfully expressed the disappointment to go with the usual game action shots. While there were a lot of tears on the field, none of those shots really worked for me.

This was my favorite shot of the night, and it shows how sticking around a little longer can pay off. The team has a rabid fan base - the Raider Nation has nothing on these guys and gals. While everyone else was on their way to the showers, this player went to the stands thanking the fans for their support throughout the year. I think it tells the story well.

Although a picture of a coach talking with his team isn't unusual, with a little reporting - as in grabbing a quote from the huddle - the third effect kicks in and the picture means a little more.

"You are winners to me. I'm proud of you."

And I just love this shot. Local press focus so much attention on the teams and less on the supporting characters. It was the last football game for the senior cheerleaders, poms and band members as well. Including one very exuberant drum major.

And the action...

Old Rag Mountain - Leaves

Kayaking Jug Bay with Dave

Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary - 11/01/2011

Going it on their own - or - Will internet kill the television star?

Oprah Winfrey and Howard Stern lead the way for content producers to distribute directly to the viewer – maybe.

It appears Winfrey is ready to leave network TV and start her own (partially anyway) cable network - (http://bit.ly/1TXVPI and http://bit.ly/2j1uAo). If the move is successful, how long before she considers going solo? She already owns the production infrastructure, why rely on the cable companies for distribution. Video is quickly following radio down the internet rabbit hole – podcasting, Last FM, Pandora, Lala, HULU, Netflix streaming… I’m not talking about watching on a computer screen - as broadband penetration increases, internet streaming is becoming ubiquitous on living room electronics like TVs, DVD players and DVRs.

Will the audience follow, and more importantly could she monetize those eyeballs? Howard Stern has already proven the model by bucking the conventional wisdom that the audience will not pay for something that was once free. How many people do you know that keep a Sirius subscription primarily for Stern’s show?

Stern already left the terrestrial airwaves for Sirius in a huge deal that gave Sirius an instant audience and Stern a ton of money.  The latest rumblings are that Stern is considering completely cutting out the middleman and distributing directly to his audience over the internet (Jeff Jarvis discusses the possibilities here - http://bit.ly/4829cJ).

Of course this only leaves us with more questions. What does this mean for traditional TV and cable companies? Will they become channels on YouTube? Will the cable deliverers be content as internet providers?

More importantly, there are forces at work shaping this future right now that are happening pretty much under the radar. Most people probably don’t see the connection between the television they watch now and the FCC’s Net Neutrality rules (very, very basically – to stop providers from favoring some content over others). Nor do most people understand the future implications of John McCain’s completely misnamed “Internet Freedom Act,” that seeks to tie the FCC’s hands. Here is a good article from CNet’s Maggie Reardon explaining - http://bit.ly/rzwEa.

Would you have published the Derrion Albert video?

Should FOX Chicago have aired the disturbing video of 16 year-old Derrion Albert being beaten, resulting in his death, during a violent outburst outside of a Chicago school? Obviously the question is much larger than this single incident. Just weeks before the Derrion Albert video aired, a similar debate arose around the AP’s decision to share a graphic photograph of a wounded U.S. soldier (who died of his injuries) in Afghanistan.

Before you decide - Check out these two news reports from Fox Chicago. The broadcast on the day of the killing is before the channel received the video - http://bit.ly/3ulR0z. The following day’s report includes the footage (don’t just watch the raw video that unfortunately wants to play first, click to watch the report so you can compare) - http://bit.ly/49pSqT.

Does the video help the viewer better understand the level of violence those kids live with?

Also consider this – According to kids at the school, that kind of violence had been common for months receiving little attention. After the video aired, President Obama dispatched the secretary of education and attorney general to meet with school officials and community leaders. Obama = attention (at least for a news cycle).

Think about this – The video was released along with a plea for viewers to help identify the assailants.

Next, do some online research and read some of the articles about Albert’s death. Are the stories about the tragic death of an honor student, do they stimulate conversation about the larger issue of youth violence or has the video become the story?

Finally, (like you haven’t already made up your mind) take the time to listen to FOX Chicago news director Carol Fowler explain her reasons for airing the video (talking with On The Media’s Bob Garfield). - http://bit.ly/3ZdYhJ

OK, now you can decide if it was the right decision or not.

More than advertising loses value in transition to web

A clip of Sam Zell discussing the Tribune bankruptcy on Bloomberg TV is popping up all over the place today [ disclosure – I do freelance work for Patuxent Publishing, owned by Tribune]. You can see the full clip from Bloomberg here: http://bit.ly/4a8Tlx. Yeah - he says the Tribune deal is the most money he’s ever lost (on 1 deal) and that no newspaper can survive. But people running the shorter YouTube version of the clip leave out that Zell expects Tribune to emerge from bankruptcy in the first quarter next year. However, I wouldn’t say he’s exactly enthusiastic when he says it, and he originally said it would come out of bankruptcy at the end of this year.

Looking at the cause, to the Tribune’s effect, aggregation has gotten most of the press as the slayer of the industry. Jason Fell discusses another big wrench in the works in an article called “The Value of Online Content: Practically Nothing” - http://bit.ly/4k1YO0. It is not just advertising that loses value in the transition to online. While it may be easy to dismiss this as “you get what you pay for,” look at the numbers. According to the article, Demand Media is bigger (based on visits) than cnn.com, and gotten there paying $15.00 a story. If you produce content, that has to make you sit up and say “Yikes!”

“…other media companies, which have been trying to increase the value of their content to at least match the cost of producing it, have the equation backwards. As he’s done with Demand, Rosenblatt said the trick is in cutting costs until they match market value for your content.”

– “Yikes!”