Photojournalism Final

The final consists of the following questions:

1. Should newspapers show us violent images from Iraq?
2. Should the photographer and editor be two separate people?
3. Given the power and contrast of black and white images, what argument is made that readers prefer color?
4. Discuss the photojournalistic ethics of honesty, decency and relevance.

1. I say news is news. If violence is happening in Iraq, then yes, I say images representing it should be portrayed. Now, before I establish myself too starkly as a left-wing extremist, let me disclaim for a moment; I do believe that in everything there should be some element of moderation. If it were all up to me, images that show what is happening without exploiting every gory detail would be perfectly enough to tell the story, and perhaps the more terrible ones should be withheld, if for no other reason than respect for the victims.
Otherwise, I feel it is the responsibility of photojournalists to portray it like it is, and that newspapers should honor that. And as citizens, if we have a problem viewing that sort of thing in the news, well, maybe we should be out there doing something about what IS news in our world.

2. Yes. Checks and balances need to be present in every system to prevent extremes. But let it be a two-way process - each editing the other. In other words - photographer snaps a set, gives it to the editor, editor chooses what he likes, submits it to photographer for approval. Both agree on what will be submitted and give it to the next in line. If they can't agree, bring someone else into it, but never do I think it should just be one person in charge of the editing process.

3. Color vs. B&W, the classic and epic battle. The main argument for color is simply that we do not see in black and white. Our eyes, well, most of our eyes, :D see in color and that is how the world is arrayed. Therefore, from an objective photojournalistic aspect, it stands to reason that color photos tell a truer story. Now, I don't necessarily buy into that argument, but that's what the word is on the street.

4. Honesty deals with the portrayal we give our subjects as photographers. It's easy to manipulate aspects of framing, exposure, and color to tell a different story than what is really there. It's incumbent on us, therefore, to be true to what is happening and not make inappropriate distortions, such as in the cropped photograph of "insurgents" throwing rocks at the military vehicle, when in the uncropped version, it is plain that it was solicited by the military personnel.
Decency deals with what I have already touched on in #1. Learn to tell a story and affect change without scarring readers with indecent images.
Relevance is all to do with the question of whether or not what we are portraying even matters to our audience. One of the responsibilities of photojournalists is to understand politics, cultures, and other temporal and social aspects of the contexts in which they shoot. Relevance is determined by all of these factors.

Best of the semester

Well, I guess you've all talked me into it. I've chosen this image as my favorite technically, even though I do feel a little as though it's kind of a dead horse. But the elements of shutterspeed, depth of field, color, and contrast are definitely the most defined out of any of my work this semester. So, here ya go...

Next up is my favorite or Adam Metcalf, who in my opinion, is a total genius. To him, this is just a random shot of a girl on a spring board, but to the rest of us, and I'm sure you'll agree, this is pure brilliance.

2009 Easter Car Show

These are a few pictures taken at the Easter car show in Hurricane, in the hopes of getting one or two good ones. Let me know what you think! Click "View Full Album" to see all the pictures!

Feature News - Daniel & Megan - Marriage - The Highest Happiness on Earth

Harmon's Incident

The old man was yelling, "NO! I won't get out!" in a very gruff, almost child-like voice, although its depth and age certainly were not childlike. It was his pronunciation of words that caught my attention. He sounded just like I remember sounding as a kid when my mom wanted me to eat my green beans. Apparently the man had had a stroke or something akin to it, and had resorted back to a childlike state and refused to be removed from the car. These are the pictures I got before they shooed me away.

Daniel and Megan Bridals

St. George Temple - Just a show 'n tell!

This is a picture I did for my wife, Sam, for Christmas.  I built a vintage/distressed frame for her out of original wood from inside the temple from an area where my dad had done some remodeling for the church and saved some of the wood originally brought down from Mount Trumble when the temple was being built.  My wife thought that was a pretty rad Christmas present. 

Just a couple Diggs from the Pine View Hurricane B-ball game :D

Much of my time in the mission field was spent waiting around for the metro to come by so we could contact people on it.

This is a photo I took while on my mission in Montreal Canada. How the young man managed to stand there for as long as I had my shutter open, I'll never know, but he did, and it made for a great shot. I have a lot of special memories from my mission, and this captures the magic of nights in the areas I served.

Shutterspeed and Aperture Study

This photo, taken on Canon Rebel XTi with Canon 75-300mm f/3.5-5.6 stock telephoto lens is an illustration of the effects of both aperture and shutterspeed. It is the tip of an umbrella (if you couldn't tell :P) and the streaking lines behind it are raindrops. It is taken at a relatively slow shutterspeed to achieve the blue, with a wide aperture and long zoom to achieve the shallow depth of field. The dark lighting of the rainy day allowed me to shoot with those settings so it wasn't overexposed.

Abstract Aperture Study

I really liked the way the shadow cast from the ring created a heart shape in the crease of the book's binding. This photo was shot with my Rebel XTi with Sigma 18-50 f/2.8

N-o-o-b-i-e :D

I'm new to the whole photojournalism thing. I'm very excited to learn about it though. I've always thought that it would be cool to be one of those crazy intense photographers that goes out, night or day, rain, sleet, snow, or shine to cover the events that none of the rest of us have even heard about yet. I mean, often they're there before the EMT's, paramedics, firemen, police, or whoever else is supposed to be on the scene of whatever it was that just happened.
As you can see, I have a bit of a glorified image of the photographer that I have not yet become. Somehow, I haven't reached that level of audacity yet. My pictures are very light-filled, warm and fuzzy - not to say there's anything wrong with that - but I am very excited to learn to tell stories of other kinds as well.