work for the week of Monday, April 27 to Friday, May 1

You have two assignments this week. Your work is due by midnight Friday, or by midnight Sunday, if you receive extended time. As always, share: 2006630, and contact me, if you have any questions about the material.  Thank you.

Essentials for taking a good photo

Assignment 1:

1.Take your time and follow along with the readings,understanding  and reflecting upon the image samples for the rule of thirds, phi grid and Fibonacci spiral. (you are responsible for understanding these 3 terms!)

2. At the conclusion of the reading (I've provided supplemental links, for those who are interested), there is a short video that will support the reading. I suggest that your review the reading, after after having watched the video.

3. Application of what you have learned: there are ten images that follow. For each decide on the compositional technique that is used and support your reasoning with specifics from the image that clearly demonstrate you understand the how the photo was organized. 

4. Part 2:  Take three horizontal photos that demonstrate the rule of thirds or phi grid and fibonacci spiral. and share. 

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SO you want to take a good photo!

1. Think about your shots

Whether that’s physically looking at a sweeping view in front of you or visualizing an image in your head, this is the point when you should start asking yourself questions.

What has drawn you to this image? Why do you want to capture it? And what is it that you hope to achieve?

Photography starts with composition. How you frame a scene is the basic building block of taking a good picture.

What Is the Phi Grid?

A number of photographers prefer using a grid based on Phi when composing their shots. Naturally, this technique is called the Phi Grid. It’s a variation on the Rule of Thirds, one of the basic principles of photography.

The Rule of Thirds divides a frame into three rows and three columns of equal size, resulting in 1:1:1 vertically and 1:1:1 horizontally. The Phi Grid divides the frame in a similar way, but makes the middle row and middle column smaller according to the golden ratio, resulting in 1:1.618:1 vertically and 1:1.618:1 horizontally.

Here’s a quick comparison:

The intersection of the grid lines is where the eye is naturally drawn to, so use those to align your image. Digital Photography School offers an example of how to use the Phi Grid, in a detailed article worth reading in full, if you wish.

The horizon is lined up with the top line of the Phi grid. When you line up the horizon with a rule of thirds grid, the separation is too…obvious. I think it would leave a bit too much of what isn’t the subject in the image. In this photo, the sky and clouds are the perfect compliment to what is conveyed in the photo: The church on the bottom right, and the  street on the left. But with any more sky than is already present in the photo, the viewer might think the sky is actually the subject.

The Fibonacci Spiral

In geometry, the golden ratio can also be expressed as a particular type of rectangle. Suppose you take the x+y line above, and turn it a rectangle, where the width is x and the length is x+y.

If you divide the area of that rectangle into a series of squares, it forms a spiral of the Fibonacci sequence, as LiveScience demonstrates:

If you’ve read The Da Vinci Code, you know the Fibonacci sequence: you start with the number 1, add the previous whole number, and make an endless series of numbers with that pattern. So the series looks like this:

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89…

Fibonacci discovered that this “golden spiral” appears in several places throughout nature, from DNA molecules to flower petals, from hurricanes to the Milky Way. More importantly, the Fibonacci spiral is pleasing to the human eye.

Adrian Bejan, professor of mechanical engineering at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering, says the golden ratio is aesthetically pleasing because of the evolution of human vision.

Long story short, our brain has to process everything our eyes see. The quicker it can process something, the more pleasing it is. Any image with the golden ratio is processed faster by the brain, so it sends a signal that such an image is aesthetically pleasing.

How to Use the Fibonacci Spiral

In terms of actual photography, you don’t need to worry about the technical explanation. Fibonacci Spirals are useful for nearly every kind of photography, but they’re especially good for landscapes and wide shots.

Here is a  foggy, late afternoon during fall and you want to capture the colors of the sunset that are filtering through the fog as well as the beautiful crimson color of the fall foliage. You want to incorporate one person who stands out walking along the path, the fall foliage in the foreground, and the tree line as the central point of focus in the frame. To do this  position these aspects in the center of your imagined rectangle, knowing that it contains several of the key focus points associated with the ratio, and incorporate the fog into the scene along the wide arc of the spiral.

As you can see, the spiral basically has a way of leading your eye naturally from the focal point outwards. 

Here's two other example:

Please watch this 4 minute video to review composition techniques; this should help solidify your understanding of the phi grid, rule of thirds and Fibonacci spiral.

The Golden Rule vs the rule of thirds

                                                       1.

                                                                 2

                                                   

                                                                   3.

                                                                     4.

                                                                 5.

                                                                           6.

                                                                      7.

                                                                   8

                                                                   9.

10.

4th quarter Photojournalism from Monday, April 20 through Friday, April 24

First of all, thank you for your hard work last quarter and difficult adjustment in moving on line. As we have full quarter, there will be no bonus work. Please check the assignments carefully. As always, communicate with me. I love hearing about what you are doing.

Culture Vulture Break (This is a short outtake from the routine; enjoy) Northerner invades London

We are beginning our photojournalism unit. The assignments will be adjusted for on-line activities. I will post all the week's work by Sunday evening. You have until midnight Friday to submit your work, but please don't hesitate to send along the assignments earlier. For anyone who receives extended time, you will have until the following Sunday evening. This should allow you to balance your other academics and responsibilites. Make sure to clearly identify your assignment. You will be taking your own photos and there will be two projects.  We will be sharing some of the images for analysis. No names will be mentioned. 

As no one will be failing the course, there will be no partial credit for work received late. Please be mindful that most schools request your end-of-the year course grades. If you have any questions, please send me an e-mail. Lots of you do already.

To begin:  Capturing an image first requires seeing, not merely looking or glancing, but actually training yourself to frame an image in your mind, to have imbedded those organizational structures, the geometric patterns, the light, the colors that we naturally encounter in our lives and transpose them through a lens to grasp a singular moment. 

Below is a photograph by the Garry Winogran (1928-1984),who was born in New York, where he lived and worked most of his life. Winogran photographed the visual cacophony of the city streets, people, rodeos, airports and animals in the zoos. This photo is unusal for him. It is suggested that he attended the convention because of its carnival atmosphere.

Assignment for Monday and Tuesday: Garry Winogran
                     Look; then look harder 
                     List: 20 things you see in the photo, being very precise. For example, note relationship angles, details of light, posture, body parts or where exactly objects are placed. With this list, anyone should be able to compose a rough sketch of the photo, without having seen the picture.
                    Read the background information on the photo.
                    Respond to the questions that follow. 

Some background information on the photograph
  . This photo was taken in the middle of Kennedy's acceptance 
       speech for the nomination for the presidency.

• Television played a key role in the 1960 presidential campaign. After his nomination at the Democratic National Convention, John F. Kennedy appeared next to his Republican opponent Richard Nixon in the first presidential debate ever broadcast to a national audience. Many historians believe that the appearance and demeanor of the candidates as seen on TV had a direct impact on the election.
• Kennedy’s nomination represented a new direction for the Democratic party. While the establishment worried that his youth and his Irish-Catholic background would be liabilities in the general election, the 1960 Democratic Convention marked a shift toward a new generation of leaders and a more open nomination process.
• As a street photographer, Garry Winogrand used split-second timing to capture images that are both spontaneous and simultaneously dense with meaning. 
• Questions: 1.Where is Winogrand standing when taking the photo? 2) How many images of Kennedy to we see?  3. Note how public personalities are constantly mediated through images. We never have full access to them as human beings.  Look at Kennedy's hand. 4. What meaning may be derived from his gesture?  
• 5.  Below is the image the public would have seen. Note that this was only the 3rd televised convention. In approximately 100 words, compare the public view to Winogrand's photo.
  

  

Wednesday through Friday: Background information on photojournalism

Assignment: background questions

Please read the following information and respond to the questions.

Photojournalism background information questions

1. What was the original purpose of photojournalism and how has it changed. (please weave text into your response.)

2. What is the difference between photojournalism and documentary photography?

3. How did the Leica change photography?

4. How did the photo magazines differ from individual news photos?

5. What was the function of the cutlines?

6. Who was Henry Luce?

7. How has photojournalism served political or social issues?

8. What was the impact of television on photojournalism?

9. In what was is photography "another design tool?"

10. What role does photojournalism play now?

11. At the end of the blog, you'll find excerpts from Life Magazine's first photojournalism issue of 1936.  Read the short introductory material, and write a five-seven sentence response as to what was expected of Bourke-White and what she actually photographed. What do you think was the impact of her choice?

What is photojournalism? 

 by Ed Kashi 

American photojournalist and member of VII Photo based in the Greater New York area.

.Kashi's work spans from print photojournalism to experimental film. He is most noted

 for documenting sociopolitical issues.

1. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Kashi
   

   Wikipedia
2. 
   

Photojournalism is a unique and powerful form of visual storytelling originally created for print magazines and newspapers but has now morphed into multimedia and even documentary film making. Through the internet, apps and the mobile device explosion, photojournalism can now reach audiences never before imagined with immediate impact, while continuing to write our visual history and form our collective memories.

Photojournalism works on multiple levels, from covering breaking news and wars, to forming visual narratives and feature stories that help to illuminate and clarify the issues of our time with a depth and perspective that few other mediums can achieve. The universal nature of photography and the ability to capture time and freeze it in a way the mind remembers is a searing and unique quality of this medium.

Photojournalism can also work as an agent of change, often outside of its role in mainstream media. This tradition harks back to its earliest days and confirms its roots in advocacy and the documentary tradition. When practiced as long form, in depth, personal storytelling, photojournalism expands the aesthetics of visual reporting, justifies its grand intentions of enlightenment and contributes to our deeper understanding of the world.

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More info.

Photojournalism is a branch of journalism characterized by the use of images to tell a story. The images in a piece may be accompanied by explanatory text or shown independently, with the images themselves narrating the events they depict. Photojournalists can be found working all over the world, from the halls of the White House to the steppes of Asia, and they deal with a broad assortment of situations on a daily basis. Many major newspapers have photojournalists on staff, and others rely on photographs included in a press pool by freelance photojournalists.

People have been using images to depict events for centuries, from rock paintings to engravings in major newspapers. The first big event to be captured in photography was the Crimean War, establishing the groundwork for the professional field. Initially, photographs were often used to accompany text stories to provide some variation and visual interest, but over time, images began to be used more exclusively to narrate stories in the media.

The field is distinct from that of documentary photography. Although both involve taking photographs which are objective, honest, and informative, photojournalism involves photographing specific events, while documentary photography focuses on ongoing situations. A photographer who follows traditional farmers in rural England is a documentary photographer, but one who takes pictures of the aftermath of a suicide bombing for publication in the news is a photojournalist.

Modern photojournalism: 1920-1990.

excerpts from from Ross Collins, professor North Dakota State University, advanced News Photography Course

1925 Leica

The beginning of modern photojournalism took place in 1925, in Germany. The event was the invention of the first 35 mm camera, the Leica. It was designed as a way to use surplus movie film, then shot in the 35 mm format. Before this, a photo of professional quality required bulky equipment; after this photographers could go just about anywhere and take photos unobtrusively, without bulky lights or tripods. The difference was dramatic, for primarily posed photos, with people award of the photographer's presence, to new, natural photos of people as they really lived.

Added to this was another invention originally from Germany, the photojournalism magazine. From the mid-1920s, Germany, at first, experimented with the combination of two old ideas. Old was the direct publication of photos; that was available after about 1890, and by the early 20th century, some publications, newspaper-style and magazine, were devoted primarily to illustrations. But the difference of photo magazines beginning in the 1920s was the collaboration--instead of isolated photos, laid out like in your photo album, editors and photographers begin to work together to produce an actual story told by pictures and words, or cutlines. In this concept, photographers would shoot many more photos than they needed, and transfer them to editors. Editors would examine contact sheets, that is, sheets with all the photos on them in miniature form (now done using Photoshop software), and choose those he or she best believed told the story. As important in the new photojournalism style was the layout and writing. Cutlines, or captions, helped tell the story along with the photos, guiding the reader through the illustrations, and photos were no longer published like a family album, or individually, just to illustrate a story. The written story was kept to a minimum, and the one, dominant, theme-setting photo would be published larger, while others would help reinforce this theme.

The combination of photography and journalism, or photojournalism--a term coined by Frank Luther Mott, historian and dean of the University of Missouri School of Journalism--really became familiar after World War II (1939-1945). Germany's photo magazines established the concept, but Hitler's rise to power in 1933 led to suppression and persecution of most of the editors, who generally fled the country. Many came to the United States.

The time was ripe, of course, for the establishment of a similar style of photo reporting in the U.S. Henry Luce, already successful with Time and Fortune magazines, conceived of a new general-interest magazine relying on modern photojournalism. It was called Life, launched Nov. 23, 1936.

The first photojournalism cover story was an article about the building of the Fort Peck Dam in Montana. Margaret Bourke-White photographed this, and in particular chronicled the life of the workers in little shanty towns spring up around the building site. The Life editor in charge of photography, John Shaw Billings, saw the potential of these photos, showing a kind of frontier life of the American West that many Americans thought had long vanished. Life, published weekly, immediately became popular, and was emulated by look-alikes such as Look, See, Photo, Picture, Click, and so on. Only Look and Life lasted. Look went out of business in 1972; Life suspended publication the same year, returned in 1978 as a monthly, and finally folded as a serial in 2001.

But in the World War II era, Life was probably the most influential photojournalism magazine in the world. During that war, the most dramatic pictures of the conflict came not so often from the newspapers as from the weekly photojournalism magazines, photos that still are famous today. The drama of war and violence could be captured on those small, fast 35 mm cameras like no other, although it had to be said that through the 1950s and even 1960s, not all photojournalists used 35s. Many used large hand-held cameras made by the Graflex Camera Company, and two have become legendary: the Speed Graphic, and later, Crown Graphic. These are the cameras you think of when you see old movies of photographers crowding around some celebrity, usually showing the photographer smoking a cigar and wearing a "Press" card in the hatband of his fedora. These cameras used sheet film, which meant you had to slide a holder in the back of the camera after every exposure. They also had cumbersome bellows-style focusing, and a pretty crude rangefinder. Their advantage, however, was their superb quality negative, which meant a photographer could be pretty sloppy about exposure and development and still dredge up a reasonable print. (Automatic-exposure and focus cameras did not become common until the 1980s.)

Rolleifex 

Successor to the Graphic by the 1950s was the 120-format camera, usually a Rolleiflex, which provided greater mobility at the expense of smaller negative size. You looked down into the ground-glass viewfinder. But in newspapers, by the Vietnam War era, the camera of choice was the 35--film got better, making the camera easier to use, and the ability to use telephone, wide-angle, and later, zoom lenses made the 35 indispensable, as it still is to most photojournalists today.

 35 mm

Some of the great photojournalists of the early picture story era included "Weegee" (Arthur Fellig), a cigar-chomping cameraman before World War II who chronicled the New York crime and society's underside.

During World War II W. Eugene Smith and Robert Capa became well known for their gripping war pictures. Both were to be gravely affected by their profession. In fact, Capa was killed on assignment in Indochina, and Smith was severely injured on assignment in Japan.

Shortly before the war, with the world realizing the power of the camera to tell a story when used in unopposed, candid situations, the federal government's Farm Security Administration hired a group of photographers. In fact, the FSC was set up in 1935 by Franklin D. Roosevelt to help resettle farmers who were destitute due to the Depression and massive drought in the Midwest. Because these resettlements might be a controversial task, the director, Roy Stryker, hired a number of photographers to record the plight of the farmers in the Midwest.

The photographers later, many of them, became famous--the collected 150,000 photos now housed in the Library of Congress. The power of these often stark, even ugly images showed America the incredible imbalance of its society, between urban prosperity and rural poverty, and helped convince people of the importance of Roosevelt's sometimes controversial social welfare programs. You can still buy copies of all these photos from the Library of Congress, including the most famous, such as Arthur Rothstein's dust bowl photo, or Dorthea Lange's "Migrant Mother."

The golden age of photojournalism, with its prominent photo-story pages, ranged from about 1935 to 1975. Television clearly had a huge impact--to be able to see things live was even more powerful than a photo on paper. Even so, many of the photos we remember so well, the ones that symbolized a time and a place in our world, often were moments captured by still photography. Early in photojournalism black and white was still the standard, and newspapers and many magazines were still publishing many photo-pages with minimal copy, stories told through photographs. Beginning about in the mid-1980s, however,   photojournalism changed its approach. Photographs standing alone, with bare cutlines, carrying the story themselves often have been dropped in favor of more artistic solutions to story-telling: using photography as part of an overall design, along with drawings, headlines, graphics, other tools. It seems photography has fallen often into the realm of just another design tool.

Photography is driven by technology, always has been. Because, more than any other visual art, photography is built around machines and, at least until recently, chemistry. By the 1990s photojournalists were already shooting mostly color, and seldom making actual prints, but use computer technology to scan film directly into the design. And by the beginning of the new millennium, photojournalists were no longer using film: digital photography had become universal, both faster and cheaper in an industry preoccupied with both speed and profit. If you compare published photography today to that to 25 years ago, many fewer candid photos, less spontaneity, fewer feature photos of people grabbed at work or doing something outside. 

LIFE's First-Ever Cover Story: Building the Fort Peck Dam, 1936

Photographer Margaret Bourke-White had been dispatched to the Northwest to photograph the multimillion dollar projects of the Columbia River Basin. What the editors expected were construction pictures as only Bourke-White can take them. What the editors got was a human document of American frontier life which, to them at least, was a revelation."

Thus the men and women behind what would become one of the longest-lived experiments — and one of the greatest success stories — of 20th century American publishing introduced themselves, and their inaugural effort, to the world.

In her riveting 1963 autobiography, Portrait of Myself, Bourke-White herself recalls the heady experience working for LIFE — on the debut issue, and on countless subsequent assignments for what would become one of the indispensable weeklies of the past 100 years:

Workers on Montana's Fort Peck Dam blow off steam at night, 1936.
Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Image

Caption from LIFE. In the Wild West town of Wheeler, near Fort Peck, Montana, Frank Breznik (left) is the law.

Margaret Bourke-White

This is Wheeler, Montana, one of the six frontier towns around Fort Peck in Mr. Roosevelt's new Wild West

The New West's new hotspot is a town called 'New Deal.'

The only idle bedsprings in New Deal are the broken ones.

Beneath a "No Beer Sold to Indians" sign, a woman tosses back a drink in Montana, 1936.

Life in the cowless cow towns is lush but not cheap.

 Bar X, Montana, 1936

Ruby's Place. This is the beer bar. The only drink you can legally sell by the glass in Montana 

One-fourth of the Missouri River will run through this steel 'liner.'

cene from one of the several "frontier towns" near the site of the Fort Peck Dam, Montana

Workers on the site of the Fort Peck Dam, Montana, 1936.

The mammoth pipes to be used to divert the flow of the Missouri River, during building