I finally get this. The WSJ reported yesterday that Microsoft will spend $605 billion on e-publishing with an investment in the Nook that also includes Barnes&Noble’s college bookstores unit.
Right now, Apple is the only real player in the academic digital book business. I think Microsoft is positioning itself to give Apple some real competition once the huge Windows install base upgrades to Windows 8. That will be the first time a Windows tablet will make sense to most consumers.
Potentially world-changing science story and the wire has nothing? MIT
I have never seen so much gear used to so little effect. Still, it’s amazing.
Trace the growth of U.S. newspapers in this cool interactive map. We may not know exactly where we’re going, but we can appreciate where we’ve been.
OK, so I’m going to blow one of my secrets here. I’ve done it before; such as my talk last month at the North Dakota Newspaper Association convention. But today, New York Times columnist David Pogue blew the cover off this trick in his column, so here goes.
I’m going to show some examples of photographs that I made on my Canon EOS-1D Mk III professional DSLR, wirelessly beamed to my iPhone, cropped, toned, captioned and transmitted via FTP to The Forum for use in print. They never touched a “computer” until picked up by my newspaper’s photo archive.
This is the photo used on today’s cover.
I’ve actually done this trick before, but it has never been as easy as it is now thanks to a new feature of an Eye-Fi card. The card can host a wi-fi network for a smartphone or computer and their free app can pull the photos into the phone’s camera roll. What’s more, I’ve configured it to only transfer photos I tag in camera using the protect button. This feature is what makes it really useful for a photojournalist. I wouldn’t want the card to transfer hundreds of photos.
Toning on the phone is nearly impossible, so it is very important to shoot nearly perfect exposures. Ideally, using a manually set or “custom” white balance. I like to shoot a pocket-sized gray card.
The biggest drawback is that there is no way to adjust selections with Photogene. You can only do global adjustments, so “dodging up” faces isn’t possible.
This isn’t going to replace using a laptop, but it can be useful on a busy day. Set up is a big hassle, but once it works, it’s magic.
Time-lapse movie of the largest human mosaic of a Viking ship: http://vimeo.com/24533240
The folks with Moorhead Schools were good enough to let me use a lift to shoot this time-lapse movie. It was pretty low-tech. I simply tripped the shutter by hand every 10 seconds for the better part of an hour. I dumped 266 frames to the computer and got this rendered in pretty quickly. Thanks again to Moorhead Schools for letting me capitalize on their lift and for being so patient with me in letting me stay until the ship and sea of jeans were cleaned up.
Forum Photo Awards of the North Dakota Newspaper Association awards luncheon May 6 in Grand Forks.
News Photo
Third Place
Michael Vosburg
Second Place
Dave Wallis
First Place
Dave Wallis
Spot News Photo
Honorable Mention
Dave Wallis
Third Place
Dave Wallis
First Place
David Samson
Feature Photo
Honorable Mention
Dave Wallis
Third Place
Michael Vosburg
Second Place
Dave Wallis
Sports Photo
Honorable Mention
Michael Vosburg
Third Place
Dave Wallis
Second Place
Michael Vosburg
First Place
Dave Wallis
Picture Story
Honorable Mention
Dave Wallis
First Place
Carrie Snyder
Pictorial Photo
Third Place
David Samson
Second Place
Dave Wallis
First Place
Dave Wallis
Portrait Photo
Honorable Mention
Michael Vosburg
Third Place
Dave Wallis
Second Place
Dave Wallis
Agricultural Photo
Honorable Mention
David Samson
Third Place
Michael Vosburg
First Place
David Samson
Outdoor Recreational Photo
Honorable Mention
Michael Vosburg
Second Place
Carrie Snyder
First Place
Dave Wallis
Photo of the Year
David Samson
This is obviously self serving, but I just couldn’t pass this up. What are numbers 1-3? Airline pilot, public relations director and corporate executive (senior). I should note that photojournalists make less than half of these first three careers.
While at Missouri, I made sure to spend one hour each semester talking about why not to be a photojournalist. This was partly in fairness to the students and partly to harden their resolve. It’s a form of psychological inoculation.
Simply put; if you don’t love this, you will burn out fast.
It seems every flood I shoot my boots at least once. I have mud boots and chest waders in the car, but don’t often run back to the car to change into them. Instead, I rely on GoreTex. I was glad to have my lace-on boots here as the suction would have made it almost impossible to pull mud boots out of the ground.
I didn’t set out to make a self portrait, but here it is; just like the one I used in print, but you can see my head. No, I’m not the one wearing sunglasses.
