Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/01/05
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I'm not sure what editorial control photographers in the field ever got. When Larry Burroughs and his ilk were covering the Vietnam war, they sent their film back to Europe or America for processing (in separate bags, odd and even numbered rolls in case one was lost) and often never saw what images were chosen. Reporters rarely processed their own film. It's a photo editors job to figure out what to run -- for whatever reasons. I just read Annie Liebovitz's "At Work" -- in one of her chapters "The Process" she recounts this story: "When I went out with Barak Obama during the primaries in 2008 the way the AP photographer operated fascinated me. His backpack was his office. As soon as we arrived at a site, someone from the campaign would set up a Wi-Fi system. The AP photographer would shoot the speech or whatever we were covering and before it was over he was back at the press table with his laptop, editing his pictures. He would transmit a few of them to the bureau and within ten or fifteen minutes they were on the wire. Speed was the thing. The first pictures sent out were the ones that were picked up." This means that the guy with his laptop at the back of the room is now not going to be the guy with his (or her) pictures picked up by the wire if someone can get them out without having to put their camera down. And this also means your camera becomes expendable -- if it's taken, lost, or destroyed the real thing of value is already safe, somewhere else. But knowing how to take the right photo is a lot different than the process of getting the photo to where it needs to be. When robots can shoot Vanity Fair covers, it's time for us to find something else to do, but I think that's a long ways down the road. So, yes, I think it's a good thing. The biggest danger I see to the craft of photojournalism is the creeping use of crowd sourced photos by legitimate news agencies -- fuzzy images by unpaid "citizen journalists" are finding their way into newspapers, pushing out paid professionals. kc >Kyle, > >This is a good thing? Are you willing surrender editorial control like >this? If yes, they might as well >replace you, the photographer, with a remote controlled camera robot. > >As for confiscation risks, the microSD cards are so small now that it would >be really easy to stick it >under one's tongue or loose it in one's pocket amongst the coins. :) Or for >the truly paranoid, use a >cellphone camera and send the pictures off immediately without having to >look for a Wifi hotspot. >Regards, >Spencer >On Jan 5, 2010, at 9:05, Kyle Cassidy wrote: >> >>The eye-fi pro is an 8gb sd card with built in wireless. It will upload to >>your laptop / desktop or one >>of 25 on-line services (such as picassa) as you shoot. > >>No longer do you have to shoot an event, run your cards back to some >>schlep with a laptop at the back >>of the room to send them back to the news agency. They can get them as you >>take them, and even call >>you on the phone and say "hey, go back and get another shot from the left, >>but include the band-stand this >>time." I suspect it will also make the attempted/confiscation of >>reporters/tourist images by "officials" a moot >>point. you don't need to smuggle the microfilm out of russia anymore. > > http://www.dpreview.com/news/1001/10010501eyefiprox2.asp > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information