Taking Better Pictures

I know you are all dying to actually see my new camera, right?  Well, OK, so you're not.  But I wanted to show you how nice the camera looks.  But the MAIN reason I am posting this picture is so that I can tell you what my good friend Chuck wrote me when he found out I bought a new camera: "Thanks for taking the time to tell me all about the new camera.  I'm glad you're getting it.  Now maybe you can take some GOOD photos. :^)  I'm tired of seeing such poor quality from your other cameras. " He is so funny, isn't he!

A New Camera!

I bought a new camera!  It is a Canon 6D.  I bought it because it is a full-frame camera, and because it is 5 years newer than my Nikon D300, it has a much more modern chip and processor.  This is crazy, but the ISO goes as high as 12,500 and above!  That's nuts, but I can't wait to try it.  The main thing is that when I shoot at 3200 or 6400 the images should have a lot less noise.  You will all be glad to know that this camera is "Photo Dude Approved!"  Of course it will take me a week to begin to learn all of the cool things it does.  The photograph is of the camera still in its box, inside the shipping box.

Planes & Cranes

I loved the view from THIS hotel room! While at the Northern Short Course my room was on the 8th floor, with a front-row seat to all the goings on at Newark Liberty International Airport.  The aircraft would be parked there most of the day, and when I got up in the morning they were gone, only to reappear later on.  Apparently this is a storage area away from the gates, and I am guessing that they were used for transcontinental night flights.  And the containerized cargo cranes in the background are just stunning structures, aren't they?  They are at the Port of Newark, right across the road from the far side of the airport. The telephoto lens compresses everything, making the cranes seem much closer than they are.  This may be the best hotel room view I have ever had anywhere!  I have posted a slightly larger image, so please click on it to see it in more detail.

The Building was Tilting...

These two guys are in one room, at one end of the building where the conference was. On the left is the prize winning photographer J. Kyle Keener who worked for the Philadelphia Enquirer, and then was the director of photography for the Detroit Free Press.  On the right is Alan Spearman, an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and photojournalist. Alan created the video "As I Am" which you can see on Vimeo.  Man, I swear, that with both of these heavyweights in the same room at the same end of the building, the building tilted!  Both of them gave stunning presentations at the conference.  If you wonder why the photograph is in black & white, it's because the walls of the conference room were a sickly green, and the color version of this looked awful!

Multimedia Group Reviews

I don't have all the details exactly correct here - I didn't do a good job of reporting. Every night at the conference photographers show multimedia projects - either slideshows or video productions to anyone who wants to be in the audience, and then members of the audience are are allowed to offer constructive criticism.  This young woman is a high school student, and I think she is from Washington, DC.  She came to the conference with two other students - seen on her left and right.  She put together an audio slideshow to educate people about the dangers of bullying - she took all the photographs and recorded the audio track..  She did a stunning job - it was a brilliant production that was riveting to watch, and a powerful lesson about the hazards of bullying.  Here she is listening to some comments by one of the audience members. She is one talented young woman. 

A Lighting Workshop

There were two workshops on lighting for photographers and I went to both of them.  In this one, after a slideshow of photographs were shown demonstrating various lighting techniques, the presenter set up two lights on stands and picked one person out of the audience with a camera, and another person to be the subject, then he watched as the photographer arranged the lights and took some portraits.  Here he is watching the photographer at work, then we got to see the results.

The Northern Short Course

I come to the Northern Short Course in Photojournalism every year for a number of reasons.  It feels like it keeps me engaged with the profession - I get to take workshops on both technical and esthetic issues, and listen to speakers who show their work on stories both local and from around the world.  The conference never ceases to energize me.  And then there is joy of reconnecting with friends I have known for a long time, and for friends I have only known a year or two.  This is Andrea, and I met her last year, and so this year I got to catch up with where she has been what she has been up to during the last year.  She is a really talented photographer and both she and her boyfriend are doing freelance assignments, for newspapers and magazines but they also have personal stories they are working on, about people who are less fortunate than most of us.  They are both committed to pursuing this work as well.  And I find it is wonderful to hear about people this committed to their profession.  I took this, by the way, when we were standing in the lobby talking, and I realized that I really liked the light on her face.