Action/Sports Photos

Corvallis Spartans get ready for the first match on day two of OSAA State Championships.  

Sat. Nov. 4th.

Players brace in preparation for a 4th match as team brings the game to a close, 25-22.

Hannah McAtee saves ball in game against Lebanon Warriors.

"My Hometown"

Powell's Book Store.  As the largest independent retail book store in the world located in Portland, OR, it covers an  entire block of the uptown Pearl District.  It regularly hosts author meet and greets and other local events as well as hundreds of daily customers. Saturday Nov. 4th

(From left) Jiggity Kim, Jessie Alvarez, Matt Beattie, Brent Traut, and Sam Liu, Corporate Board Members of Pinterest, wait in line for the infamous Local Voodoo Doughnuts, serving customers since 2003.  The team traveled up from the San Francisco bay area to  set up a work site in Oregon.  They decided to take a break and bring back a pink box filled with Portland-originated treats.

Michael Dorland poses while preparing food for customers at one of Portland's Oldest originating food trucks.  Steaks Fifth Avenue, owned by Chris Schenk(not picured), has been resident of the same block since 1997.  Dorland believes the business will continue to thrive in the metropolitan area that has a reputation for mass amounts of foot traffic.

Week 7 Forum

Shooting Sports:
Karl Maasdam gave a lot of great tips while explaining how he approaches shooting high action activities such as football, baseball, and other sports.  One tip that I found to really useful was to try and get the eyes in the shot.  Trying to get good shots of high motion moments can seem really daunting, and maybe getting a shot that's in focus at all could be considered a good shot.  But a great shot has the face and eyes in the frame.  It puts a personal aspect to the photo and reminds the audience that it is still just a person catching the ball and not some looming figure.  That makes shooting sports seem easier because it's a good start to make sure you get what you're looking for.  Start by being in front of the players, making sure that their faces and eyes are turned towards you.

Karl also talked about how that background is very important but can also be very tricky to manage.  Sports are very publicized events and lots of fans show up to support.  It creates a great environment but it can also cause the background to appear very cluttered and can cause the subject get lost among the mass of bystanders.  He advised us to keep a very low aperture in order to create a nice depth of field that differentiates between the subject and the background more so the person in the foreground stands out more.  This is also a good tip that will forces me to learn more about my camera.  With the action happening so fast in sports, you need to know how to adjust with the lighting and the motion as fast because the moment will only last a second.

Action/Sports Photos:
I plan on going down to the skate park and trying to get some action shots of the skateboarders and bikers.  I wanted to try something different in order to get some photos that are new and exciting for people.  I will most likely go out on the weekends because that will probably be when it is most busy and I'll have more opportunities to get people in my photos.  For my overall, I would like to get people waiting on the side of the ditch, watching the others.  As a medium shot, I want to try and get to people in the same shot while they are both skating.  I would love to get a closeup of someone doing a trick, hopefully in the air shot from down below.

Week 6 Forum

Hometown Photos:
I have the idea shooting for Corvallis as my hometown.  However, I also have ideas for shooting Portland.  I've been going up to Portland quite frequently since I was little.  Weekend Soccer tournaments, Saturday Markets, last minute vacations and many other events have connected me with the city.  For my Portrait, I hope to get a shot of a coffee shop or diner type barista/waitress.  Usually among the vegan bistros, there is a plethora of young tattoo'd, dyed haired, hipsters that scream stereotypical Portland.  I also want to try and get a portrait of a Food Truck owner maybe.  It has a large culture around the downtown area and carries a lot of history for the city.  As for a Landmark, I was thinking about a shot of the infamous Powell's sign.  It will be a challenge for me to try and incorporate people in this photo that are slightly more prominent than the passerby down under because I would have to be a bit far in order to get the whole sign in frame.  Lastly, my news feature would be of park walkers near the river front.  There is usually a large amount of people spending time there which will give me lots of opportunities to get a good photo.

Photo Story Ideas:
My first story idea, I have already set in motion.  I have decided to document the set up of the Pastega Light Displays- historically known by locals as "The Pepsi Lights."  I have gotten in touch with the head organizer, Kathleen Hutchinson about getting access to volunteer events for the set ups of the displays.  The process ranges from November 3rd- the first volunteer meeting, where families are assigned a display to refurbish- until November 24th- the opening night for the light display hosted at the Benton County Fairgrounds.  I plan on attending sessions and photographing the process from the organizing, the preparation, the set up, and finally opening night, where the public will be allowed to in for viewing.

If for some reason, my idea doesn't work out, I also have the idea of shooting a behind the scenes story of the owner of Benny's Doughnuts.  The owner, a corvallis local, just recently opened up an independent business.  I would like to see how he is handling his new role as an entrepreneur and how the business has progressed since opening.

Free Shoot

Annie Mitev, a senior in OSU's graphic design program, works on portfolio drawings in the MU lounge Mon. Nov. 20.

Annie has been working on her art skills since she was a kid.  When she began college, she dedicated herself to a concentration of drawing and painting and hopes to use her skills to become a graphic designer.

Annie specializes in portraits of women but likes to capture anything that is beautiful and interesting in her eyes.

Annie's work can be found posted around town in various business.  Her work is on display at the Beanery in downtown Corvallis and well as the Majestic Theatre.

News/Feature

(From Left) Ron Green, Mark Weiss, Pete Kozak, Jeff Hino perform traditional bluegrass music set for full audience at Benton Center in Corvallis Saturday Nov. 17.

Peter gives harmonica solo in upbeat tune.

Peter leads vocals in traditional bluegrass gospel tune.

Week 5 Forum:

Lynsey Addario,

I find it interesting to see how Addario's views and instincts are slowly changing over the course of the novel.  As I get deeper into her story, it is clear that she is getting more and more comfortable with the violence of war and has even stated that she finds the streets of Baghdad more familiar, more of a home, than any place in New York.  Her reactions and anticipations have completely shifted from "fight or flight" to investigate and capture, running with ambition toward the violence when the sounds of bombs go off.

That being said, I am pleased by how she still stays humble when faced with new battles, still managing to be effected by the never ending human suffering.  Towards the end of the 7th chapter, she leaves Iraq and travels to Africa for a very different experience.  Rather than warriors fighting for their people and defending their rights, she witnesses a region of hopeless people who can do nothing more than wait for help they aren't sure is coming.

One of the strong ideas of photojournalism that Addario stresses is something we focus on in this photojournalism class as well.  Take photos first and ask questions later.  These have very different connotations when applied to different situations.  Usually, I try to get the picture and worry about getting information for a caption later.  Addario works to get the picture and worries about her safety later.

 One of the jostling events to take place was the bombing of a nearby bank in Istanbul, down the street from where she lived.  She wasn't used to being attack so close to her home base when not in a war zone.  However, it was still her nature to grab her cameras and run to document it, not dwelling on the fact that it could've easily hit her house, destroying all her belongings, even taking her life.  Seeing these basic techniques present in such dire situations puts prospective on my seemingly no pressure assignments.

Other than her own personal time and security, Lynsey Addario has had to sacrifice a lot of her personal relationships as well.  She tells of the hardships she goes through with her relationship in almost a more urgent manner than the retellings of her war zone experience.  It was hard for her to compromise her work for the interests of her boyfriend and in the end, couldn't find a way to make it work.  Yet, she seemed more happy than ever when she was finally free of grounding relationships.  She became able to take on assignments for months and months at a time, not having to worry about the interests of others, just focusing on hr career.

Darfur, Sudan: "I moved around the desert camp self-consciously, a white, well-fed woman trudging through their misery"(179).  It's already a struggle to have to witness the immense suffering in order to document it in history.  But to have to witness it in such blatant contrast to one's own great privilege must throw anyone to an entirely new level of self awareness about how indulgent the american culture is.

One of my favorite photos from this section is of a single mother and her two children, both conceived from rape.  I found it heart warming that despite the pain and horror from which these children were created, the mother still has the capacity to love and care for them as if they were birthed out of love as well.  It exposes a different side of the world that shows how capable these people are of withstanding so much.

Week 4 Blog Forum

NPPA Code of Ethics:

The 6th policy within the code of ethics explains that the editing should maintain the integrity of the photographs content and context.  This stands out to me the most because the role of a photojournalist is to bring light to the truth in a situation.  Context can be everything when relaying events in digital print.  A lot of facts can get mixed up if they are portrayed differently than what their intents were.

The Journalist Ideals also state that one should avoid political, civic, and business involvement that may compromise their work.  I found this most compelling because it holds journalists responsible for the work that they are meant to do.  They are supposed to report unbiasedly in a way that provides access for citizens to information that have a right to know about.  If journalists start working for the people inside the story, then they wouldn't be providing the services that make them a public partner.

If a journalist was supposed to be covering the fight for independence for Kurdistan but was hired by Trump who did not want to assist the foreign cultural group, they might be requested to only shoot photos of them fighting or invading cities with innocent people being thrown into the violence.  Rather than reporting a story about the struggles Kurdistan is facing, defending its land from the Iraqi government-which warrants help from the US, the journalist can easily cause them to be seen, by US citizens, as violent terroristic people who the US should not get involved with.

Favorite Photos:

I really enjoyed Alex's close up photo of Jillian Wilson with her dog at the Humane Society.  I thought the cropping worked really well and the lighting turned out nicely.  The fact that both the girl and the dog are both facing the camera is impressive because of the difficulties working with an animal.
http://alexgaub.blogspot.com/2017/10/week-two-photos.html

I loved the close up of Zowie Deleon shot by Julia.  Her face was well lighted and in focus.  I also thought the photo included just enough to tell where she was and what she was doing but not too much that it distracts from the subject.
http://juliahazelton.blogspot.com/2017/10/week-3-news-photographs.html

Environmental Portrait

Andrea Mitev poses for picture while shooting a story for DAMChic Magazine at OSU, Oct. 15th.

Andrea, 19, has been interested in photography for the past six years, teaching herself how to shoot while building a portfolio on social media platforms.  As a sophomore at OSU, she recently switched majors from Computer Science to Digital Media and has flourished ever since.  She is now part of the Orange Media Network, shooting stories for the local OSU newspaper as well as the Lead Photographer for DAMChic Magazine.

Andrea Mitev

James Nachtwey- War Photographer

James Nachtwey

With over 36 years of experience in active war and conflict documentation, James Nachtwey is considered to be one of the greatest war photographers in recent history.  His rise to war photography started with his first foreign assignment in Northern Ireland, covering the effects of the IRA hunger strikes within the jail system in 1981.  Since then, he has covered stories of war, conflict, social upheaval and suffering in more than 30 countries world wide.  Many of which have won him some of the most respected awards in the photography profession to date.  Though he wishes his work to stay independent of his personal achievements, it is hard not to take them into account when stating that he is one of the most accomplished photojournalists from the United States.

Despite being pivotal in the distribution of information on many worldly conflicts, very little knowledge is accessible on the photographer himself.  James Nachtwey was born in 1948 in Syracuse, NY.  He grew up to attend Dartmouth College where he majored in Art History and Political Science.  This is where his personal life seems to end and his distinguished work life begins.  Nachtwey was heavily influenced by documentary photographs of the Vietnam War and the American Civil Rights movement.  

These images are what made him want to be a war photographer.  He was self taught in the skills of a digital camera and in 1976 he started working for his first newspaper in Albuquerque, NM.  This gave him steady work until he was able to move to New York and start a life of free lancing in 1980.  After his assignment in Northern Ireland, Nachtwey became an officially employed photographer for Time Magazine in 1984 and from then on, he continued to add heart wrenching proof of human struggles to his impressive portfolio of foreign issues.

Throughout is career, James Nachtwey has always stayed true to his heart as well as his passion in covering stories that he felt the world needed to see.  Occasionally, he would take an interest in foreign issues that was not shared by supporting magazines, in which case he would finance these trips himself.  Documentation of The Romanian Orphanages and the great famine in Somalia were all done by his own production and ambition. 

Nachtwey is known for his talent of getting up close to his subjects.  He believes that in order for a photograph to be great you have to be “in the same intimate space that the subjects inhabit.”  Making his work incredibly personal.  With his camera as his tool, he only intends to “tell the truth, document the struggles of humanity and wake people up and stir the to action.”  His humble mindset has shown in several interviews where his skills and technique have been compared to those of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa.  However, he resents such comparisons.  James stated, “I’m not trying to make statements about photography.  I’m trying to use photography to make statements about what is happening in the world.” 

One of my favorite photos by Nachtwey is of a boy who survived a Hutu death camp in Rwanda.  I feel it shows the epitome of his work and how he does not shy away from social controversy.  He brings light to the truth and uses his talent to spread news about issues that are hard to face for outside audiences.

http://www.jamesnachtwey.com

Because of his photography, he is able to put a human face to the struggles with evil many suffer through every day.  James Nachtwey wishes only to teach others about those struggles too and to be a catalyst for action and change in our world.

Sources:

The Editors of Encylclopedia Britannica. “James Nachtwey.” Britannica, Encylcopedia Britannica Inc., 2006,

www.britannica.com/biography/James-Nachtwey.

“James Nachtwey.” National Geographic, www.nationalgeographic.com/contributors/n/photographer-james-nachtwey/.

“James Nachtwey Speaker.” Edited by TED Team, TED, TED Inc., 2007, www.ted.com/speakers/james_nachtwey.

Nachtwey, James. “James Nachtwey Biography.” Witness Photography, James Nachtwey, www.jamesnachtwey.com.

Self-Critique

I think my best photo is a close up of the impromptu chess match I witnessed in the book store. It was my first time playing around with different angles on a subject and I thought the clarity turned out really well.


My worst photo so far was one of my first close ups.  I was just starting to learn how to work the setting on the camera as well as switching back and forth from outdoors to indoors.  My aperture was really low because it was sunny out that day but when I went back inside, it made the lighting really dark.

The skill in need of the most development would fall along the lines of people skills.  I want to become more confident and not be afraid to approach people for close up photos or information for captions.