Photo Journalism Critique

First student critique: Cody Hess.

I think Cody had some really interesting pictures. I thought his best picture was “Helmets” because the row of kids created natural lines in the picture, and despite no one really moving in the picture, I got a feeling of collisions and hard work were a matter of seconds away, and the kids know that and are anxious, and that can be a tough thing to do with a picture. If there is one thing I don’t like about this picture it would be the busy background, but that can be hard to not have at a sporting event. I thought Cody really captured the mood of the scene really well. With most of the pictures, I got a different feeling inside about what the subjects were feeling at the time. Some pictures sent chills down my spine, now maybe that is because the room I’m sitting in is freezing right now, but I do think that the pictures played a role.

What I think Cody needs to improve on is where he places the subject in his pictures. Most of them are just right in the middle and after a second or two of looking at them, I have no interest anymore. I think it would be better if he followed the rule of thirds more. In all of his pictures that he chose to be graded, there are a ton of distractions that lead the eye away from the subject. In fact, with most of the pictures, I spent more time looking at the distractions and the backgrounds than I did the subjects themselves. One thing I would do to try and help fix this is have a shallower depth of field, so the subject is in focus, but the background is not.

Overall, I think Cody did a good job capturing the mood of the people in the pictures, but he needs to improve on keeping the viewers attention on the subject.

Second student critique: Zach Greubel

What I think Zach did well capture the motion of the football games. He had some interesting positions that some of the players were in, and those can be tough to get. I also like the formation of the Western Thunder Marching Band. That created some nice lines in the pictures, and I thought the lighting for the picture was very good as well. It worked out nicely having the band in the sun, and the crowd in the shade. It was a lot less distracting that way.

There also was quite a bit that I didn’t like about these pictures. First off, for his non sports picture of the kid studying, it feels posed. I find it hard to believe that you could just sit down that close to him, take a picture, without him looking up at all. And having said that, another problem is that you can’t see his face. I would say the most important part of a feature/portrait picture of someone studying would be their face about 95% of the time, especially when you are so close to them. I would really work on trying to get their face for future pictures. The other big problem I have with his pictures is the lack of subjects, and the distractions. In most of the football pictures, there are so many players and so much going on, I don’t know where to look, and can’t find the ball because the picture is so busy. I would try zooming in more, and focusing more on one player than the whole team. And along those lines, most of the backgrounds are really distracting, whether it is the crowd at the football game, or random people by Pistol Pete at the volleyball game, or all of the things on the tables in the picture at the library, there is just too much going on in most of the pictures. I would trying a smaller depth of field to get the background out of focus, or just finding different angles where not as much is going on.

Overall I think Zach did a decent job photographing the motion of the football games, but needs to work on having less distractions in the pictures.

 

 

Photo Journalism

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Photo Journalism

1st Picture: Lazy Sunday. Caption: Chris Shinsky rests his eyes in his cab on a slow Sunday afternoon in Laramie
The fact that I got this picture was so lucky. A friend and I decided to go downtown after a crazy religious beliefs guy came up to us at Washington park and started talking to us about people and trees were essentially the same thing. Anyway, we saw some hobos walking, and trying to hitch hike to Fort Collins and thought it would make a good picture. We walked back to the car and were going to drive ahead of them so I could get their faces, and as we were driving away, my friend noticed the sleeping cap driver. I stopped and snapped a few pictures, and then had to wake him up to get his name. The experience was exciting because as soon as I saw it, I thought is would make a good picture, and I thought I was really going to have trouble with the non sports photo. The shot itself was quite easy, the subject was not moving and was oblivious to what we were doing. I did feel a little guilty while taking the picture no one wants to be photographed sleeping on the job, but I got over it. The creative device I used here was framing, because the open window makes you focus on his face.

2nd Picture: Blast. Caption: Eric Parish blasts a ball out of the bunker at Jacoby Golf Course on 9/8/11.
When I heard we needed to take sports pictures I knew I wanted to take golf pictures. I asked Eric to let me know the next time he went to the golf course so I could get pictures of him practicing and playing, so when he let me know he was going to the course, I learned of the event. The atmosphere for this was quiet and relaxed, just as you would expect a golf course to be. The experience was fun, trying to capture certain things, and looking at the game of golf through a photo lens was different. It was tough getting this shot because even though the camera was on continuous shot, getting the ball popping out of the sand was tough. I felt a little frustration because I couldn’t get a good shot for a while. The creative device I used here was cropping. You can’t see his feet, and that helps you get a perspective for the depth of the bunker.

3rd Picture: Go! Caption: Eric Parish watches, as his golf ball hangs on the lip of the cup at Jacoby Golf Course on 9/8/11.
Because this is the same event as the other golf pictures, I found out about it the same way. The atmosphere at this point was friendly, because Eric had a few friends on the putting green with him at the same time. The experience for this shot was tough because Eric kept missing putts so I couldn’t get a good one. I felt some anger while taking this picture because he kept missing, it was 10 minutes worth of putting for this picture to come together. The creative device is balancing elements.

4th Picture: We Have Liftoff. Caption: Eric Parish follows through, right after hitting the ball on the 17th hole on 9/8/11.
I still found this event the same way. The experience here was nice, because these shots were my first full swing shots. The atmosphere was a little more serious because they were actually playing a hole and not practicing. The shot was tough to get because I only had one chance at it and the golf swing is not a slow process. I felt pressure to get a shot because it was my last chance for one. The creative device I used here was rule of thirds and with Eric looking towards the picture, it keeps your eye on the picture.

5th Picture: Bombs Away. Caption: Blair Monson hit a tee shot on hole 17 on 9/8/11
I still found this event the same way. The atmosphere and experience here was serious because they were playing actual holes and Blair is more of a stranger to me. The experience was tough because I didn’t want to interfere with the tee shot, but didn’t just want to get his back. I felt more nerves because I was photographing a stranger who knew I was there, and what I was doing. The creative device is rule of thirds again.

I learned that taking non sports pictures are hard. You really do have to get lucky, and be in the right place at the right time, more than I thought would be the case. Also that I you have to get out of your comfort zone sometimes to get a good picture.

Creative Devices

1st Photo: What a Finish. Caption: Mandi Fankell, Tricia Fankell, Matt Parish, Jackie Fankell and Doug Fankell finish a race down the rainbow slides.
The creative device here is color. The bright colors from the slides, along with the colors of shirts bring your attention to Matt Parish. The slides are going down and the riders make a “V” shape with Matt in front who has the brightest shirt on. The color captures the viewers attention because there are so many different colors, and the yellow and blue catch your eye. The color makes a pleasing picture because the blue shirts match the blue slides, and it gives off the feeling of a very fun day along with the facial expressions, and who doesn’t like fun.

2nd Photo: Elk. Caption: 3 elk stand off to the side of the sixth fairway.
The creative device here is Balancing Elements. Because the elk span most of the picture, the eye stays on the focal point. It gets the viewers attention because the three elk each cover a section of the picture. Because the elements balance each other, when you eye stops looking at one elk, it goes to the next. This makes a pleasing photo because you do not have to stress to understand the focus of the picture, and the other elk keep you from being distracted by the background.

3rd Photo: Driving Range, Day Three. Caption: Matt Parish shows off his fashion sense as he gets loose on the driving range
The creative device is Symmetry and Pattern. The pattern and symmetry of the pants draws your eye to the golfer because of the colors, but more so the crazy pattern. It gets your attention because it is such a unique pattern for pants, rather than normal blue jeans. The pattern makes a pleasing photo because it starts your eye on the golfer. The pattern makes the golfer jump out at you, and as you go up from the pants, you eventually get to the club, which is pointing at the mountains, then you see the scenic background. The pattern points out who is the focus, but you don’t lose the background, which makes it pleasing.

4th Photo: Tennis Net. Caption: A side view of a tennis net, leading you towards the mountain in the upper right.
Creative Device: Leading Lines. The lines from the net take your eye towards the mountain with the sun setting behind it in the background. It gets your attention because it takes up most of the photo, and the white top of the net stands out on the green and black, leading you to the mountain. It makes a pleasing picture because it naturally brings your eye towards the mountain and keeps the eye focused on the 2 important subjects.

5th Photo: What’s up, dog? Caption: Sasha peers out from a picnic shelter.
The creative device is framing. The frame from the arch brings your attention to the dog because the frame tells you what is important, and that is the dog. It gets your attention because the shelter color contrasts the inside of the frame, and you are lead to the dog, looking at the camera. It creates a pleasing photo because you know exactly what the subject is, and the frame leads to minimal distractions.
I learned from this assignment that there is a lot more to a picture than pressing a button. There are more guidelines to getting a pleasing picture than I thought, and it was interesting to see those at work.

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Multimedia Stories. The Good and the Bad

Multimedia is a huge part of the news. Not many people are going to sit down and read news articles without anything but words. Lets take a look at some stories that did a good job, and one that needs some work.

Tennessee Woman's Basketball Coach, Pat Summitt

First is a story about Pat Summitt, who was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. This story was successful because it gave the most important information first, more specifically, that she was going to continue coaching. The slideshow setup was successful because you were able to look at her career and accomplishments without simply reading, Pat Summitt has won “x” number of games. Putting an image with a fact is always a good thing.

While I was going through the pictures, I felt a bit of sadness. Scrolling through the pictures you see how she cares about her players, and all the people she has effected in a positive way. The sadness is because of the unknown with her career. No one knows if she will be able to continue to help everyone in the ways she has, so while the execution of the story is good, the experience of learning she has Alzheimer’s is bad.

Next is a story from The New York Times about Hurricane Irene. This is a great example of multimedia journalism. The article itself talked about the damage the hurricane has done, but it is everything else that makes this story great. The picture shows people stranded because the streets have been flooded which helps indicate the stress on a personal level, and also, off to the side of the story, there are interactive maps of where there have been power outages, lots of damage, and readers own photos of the hurricanes’ effects.

While I was reading this, I felt overwhelmed with information, but in a good way. The last couple weeks I have not had internet or TV at my house, so I have been incredibly out of the loop. In fact, I had heard nothing about this hurricane until it was already here. Yet after reading this story, I feel I have a good idea of the damage the hurricane did, and the effect it had on people’s lives. From no clue, to knowledgeable in 10 minutes, this story gets an A+

Now onto the negative. This also comes from the New York Times. The story  is almost a feature on Portland, OR, saying how you can visit Portland in 36 hours.  The story does not work because the pictures are nothing special, the locations they bring up are not interesting, and the captions add very little to the story.

When I was looking at this, all I could think of is how this makes me not want to go to Portland. If this is all they have to offer, why should I go? Cool, they have ping pong tables, museums, and pubs- so does every other city in America. I kept changing pictures, hoping to see something, that not only I would find interesting, but that someone else might too, and pretty soon I ran out of pictures. Overall, I think the Times should have gone with things that are unique to Portland, not Portland’s best of what everyone else already has.

My News Diet

If my eating diet was like my news diet, I would be morbidly obese. Not from a sense that I am constantly “eating” the news, but from the sense that I only take in what “tastes the best”. What other people consider news, just does not interest me. By this I mean that politics, government, and world events really do not appeal to me.

The only place where I get traditional news is on MSN, and that only happens because it is my homepage when I first get on the internet. One benefit about my homepage is when I first get on the internet, I am going to see big events, and the most important things currently going on, and if any of them interest me, I will get more information.

My news diet mainly consists of entertainment, and more specifically, sports. After looking at my browsing history on my computer, I can confidently say that my most visited websites are ESPN, NHL, and Sports Illustrated. That is what interests me, is important to me, and what I care about, and therefore, sports information makes up most of my news intake.

In my opinion, sports information is the news. The fact that Sidney Crosby is still dealing with concussion symptoms, and just went to see a national specialist, is just as important to me as what Obama’s latest approval poll would be, to someone who cares more about politics. Sources like the three I mentioned above are very credible, and give out informative information that is news, but other people might say is just entertainment.

I think that a lot of people don’t think sports information is news, but the problem there lies within the definition of news. News in my opinion, is new information you care about or have an interest in when you see it. Therefore, I think an argument can be made that sports news, and a more broad entertainment genre, can have just as much news as CNN.

To me, Sidney Crosby's concussion is just as newsworthy as what is going on in Congress

My diet can always improve though, and if there is one thing that can get better about my news intake, it would be to pay attention to more important events going on around the world. As a journalist, you should have a pretty good idea of what is happening around the world, and while I have a very good idea of that in sports, to broaden my spectrum would be a good thing, and it is something that I have been, and will continue to work on.