[Leica] SD card will wirelessly upload your photos as you shoot

[jshul at comcast.net (Jim Shulman)]

The "craft of photojournalism" hasn't changed much since "F8 and Be There"
The former is now fully automated; the latter is what determines success.
If a newspaper can satisfy its readers with an amateur-based shot from a
crowd, why not?  The question is: can the readers tell the difference?
These days an amateur picture is often as sharp and well-framed as a pro
picture--perhaps moreso because of the chance of proximity to the desired
subject. Amateurs can also send images fast.
These days, newspapers (as well as any other business) will only spend money
for a service if it's absolutely necessary.  With the automation and speed
of digital imaging, many services that heretofore required professional
photographers can now be done by amateurs.

Jim Shulman
Wynnewood, PA
 

-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+jshul=comcast.net at leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+jshul=comcast.net at leica-users.org] On Behalf Of Kyle
Cassidy
Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 2010 10:47 AM
To: lug at leica-users.org
Subject: Re: [Leica] SD card will wirelessly upload your photos as you shoot

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
> 
> _______________________________________________
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