CNN: We don't need photojournalists! - British Journal of Photography

Susan Brannon
9 March 2012

In November, CNN quietly announced it was laying off "a dozen" photojournalists across its US bureaus as, it says, the network can now rely on user-generated content thanks to new consumer technologies."  CNN is not the only news agency that is "laying off photojournalists"  We have been feeling this for a long time.  The system went from paid, send em' out into the field with all the benefits to find local freelancers that can do the same work for 1/2 the price, to let's just take images (without permission) from the local citizens and publish them.  CNN says that "We don't need photojournalist, citizen journalists can do just as good of a job thanks to the new technologies." 

A good example are the images that Daniel Morel took of the Haiti earthquake devastation. CNN grabbed the images without permission and the same images later won a World Press Photo prize.  There are now legal issues concerning the use of the images.  Daniel Morel says, "Our role is important as independent photojournalist to tell the story as it is. I was there to document accurately this tremendous tragedy for future generations."  Morel Tweeted 13 of the images he had taken in the earthquake, within hours Agency France Press (AFP) grabbed the images and published them and the images were published worldwide on the front page of major newspapers.  Morel wrote to the AFP agencies and asked them to remove the image.  They responded with the court system, "accusing Morel of engaging in "an antagonistic assertion of rights".  (See David Morel's Legal Tangle)

Unfortunately, CNN missed the point.  Look at "Eyewitness", The Guardian, or the Times with their strength in photojournalism with good results.  The people who start to publish run of the mill news, will loose the respect from the readers and in the end, advertising funding will start to diminish.  The old traditional media still has strengths in its' content, with high quality analysis, photography and in-depth stories.  Do you think that CNN will observe proper publishing rights used from social media?  I think not. 


 Reference Link:
CNN: We don't need photojournalists! - British Journal of Photography

Mark Focus Presents his work to Putney Swope

This goes to show you that photographers should not shoot for free.  Photographers, please don't shoot for free....you are killing us!

F16 Rule Apertures

Susan Brannon
The larger the aperture in a camera is the hole or opening through which light travels this part of the camera is called an iris.  The iris is adjustable in in different increments or stops.  Each stop or f number allows half the light in as the previous one.  The term f-number or f-stop is used to define the ratio of the focal length to the diameter of the aperture.

Below is a diagram of the different f-stops.

 Each f-stop allows half the light in, so to let all the light in with the aperture fully open would be almost the same diameter as the lens.


Normally, I use the f/16 rule when taking photographs.  F/16 is the f-stop that is best to use on a sunny day, no clouds with the object in the sun because it lets in just the right amount of light for a balanced image.


Below are some examples of the results from the different f/stops:


f/16

f/11

 f/8.5

 f/7

f/4.5

 f/3.5

 Changing the aperture changes the depth of field, the depth in a scene from foreground to background that will be sharp in a photograph. Smaller apertures increase depth of field while larger ones decrease it. For some pictures—for example, a landscape—you may want a smaller aperture for maximum depth of field so that everything from near foreground to distant background is sharp. But perhaps in a portrait you will want a larger aperture to decrease the depth of field so that your subject is sharp but the background is soft and out of focus.

Remember the larger the aperture size, the smaller the aperture.  This is a good way to remember what aperture to use when you are out on a photo shoot.

To get a good image with a small aperture, you can increase the ISO.

Photojournalism and personal taste

Susan Brannon
Honest photographs can have an ethical dimension when it concerns the personal ethics of the photographer. Did the photographer violate some ethical standard in the process of making the picture?

For example, take the very famous photo of the young child dying in Sudan while a vulture stands behind her, waiting. It was taken by Kevin Carter who won a Pulitzer Prize for the photo (a photo that raised a lot of money for the relief agencies). He was criticized for not helping the child; he replied there were relief workers there to do that. After receiving his Pulitzer, Kevin Carter returned to Africa and committed suicide. He had a lot of problems in his life but, with the timing of the sequence of events, I cannot help thinking there is a correlation between his photographing the child and his suicide.

This is the kind of choice all journalists will face some time in his or her career; maybe not in the extreme situation that Carter faced, but in some way, we all will be faced with choices of helping or photographing. Some day we will be at a fire or a car accident and we will be called upon to put the camera down and help. It is a good idea to think about these issues in advance because when the hour comes, it will come suddenly and we will be asked to make a choice quickly.

Here is the principle that works for me. It is not a popular one and it is one that many journalists disagree with but it allows me to sleep at night. If you have placed yourself in the position where you can help, you are morally obligated to help. I do not ask you to agree with me. I just want you to think about this and be prepared; at what point do you put the camera down and help? At what point does your humanity become more important than your journalism?

text taken from www.nppa.org