Inside the digital image

While uploading pictures earlier this month from my digital camera, the program stalled. One of the files had downloaded, and it looked like this.



Thanks to a minor malfunction, I got to take a peek at the layers of a digital photo. I thought it might have been just strings of zeros and ones, but it's actually quite colorful.

He said his name was William...

I was out yesterday afternoon doing what felt like investigative journalism. It turns out that one of our "homeless next" characters, who we were profiling for an audio slide show isn't who he seems to be.

He gave us an elaborate story -- intricate and fascinating -- but when I went to meet him (as scheduled) at his job in Ozone Park, he and the address he gave me could not be found. He had mentioned his home address in a previous conversation, so I rushed over to East New York to an admittedly sketchy part of town -- desolate, abandoned warehouses and auto shops slapped against the above-ground subway.

Tom Davis was on the phone navigating me through the unfamiliar streets. But there was no apartment building for the address he gave me. Night was falling and I didn't feel safe wandering aimlessly through the neighborhood.

Tom and I knew he was not the most reliable source. He seldom answered his phone and didn't want his picture taken unless he was well-dressed. Something always seemed a bit off kilter, but I had several, long conversations with him, and asked him some of the same questions over and over again -- his story seemed consistent. Even the soup kitchen director mentioned that he came from Brooklyn to Staten Island twice a week to eat.

He hasn't returned my calls since Sunday. It just shows you that sometimes the best course of action is showing up in person. We could see his address on a Google map, we did a Lexis search and found he used one of the churches as his home address at one time.

But, his story doesn't seem to check out.

(Thank you, Shoe Leather. Love, Lisa)

Staten Island's hillside blues

Blending in to the wet, dank yet little-known underside of suburban Staten Island. Courtesy of ace photog MC Soft Focuz.

The Image of "Image"

So far, this is the best image that speaks to the theme of "image." Ironically, at the time, Sydney and I felt it was a failure as we did not manage to convince the subject, Cara Benedetto, to consent to having her photo taken. She did however, agree to pose with her image on her book, and we accepted it as a consolation.

Looking back, this a good depiction of an artist who calls herself the (name TK: something like non-image)

Ansel Adams's Yosemite

Nice article in the Times today on Ansel Adams and his photography. Click here or on photo.

Foto Friday — Tips #5, #6, and #7

By MC Soft Focuz (Illustration credit: Dave Burdick)

Tip #5 — Shoot a lot

Most people think that good photographers just go out and take good pictures. As the famous French photographer Robert Doisneau once said, "If I knew how to take a good photograph, I'd do it every time."

The usage ratio is very low, especially for action. Taking the roller derby photos as an example, to take the three photos you see on this post, I shot over a thousand photos over six hours in total over two sessions.

Step one: Take lots of shots to find the best place to shoot (best background, where the action happens, etc.)
Step two: Take lots of photos in the same place as people roll past.
Step three: Pan with the action.

I showed my contact sheets in class, which one should never do, as it gives away the magic. Ask me to show you sometime if you missed it.


Tip #6 — Don't Chimp

Definition: Chimping is a term originating from sports shooters. After each play, all the photographers on the sidelines look at their LCD screens simultaneously, and make the noise, "Ooh, ooh, look I got the photo."

Don't chimp. Ever.

When you next go out shooting, notice when other photographers chimp. If you look in front of them, there is almost always something interesting happening, when subjects let their guard down after the photographer stops looking at them through the camera.



Tip #7 — Becoming Invisible

I first watched Alex Majoli, one of the most famous photographers in the world, become invisible. It was the most amazing sight. It took me four years to replicate that, but when I photographed a man at the Puerto Rican day parade flashing women passers-by, I knew I had achieved the power of invisibility.

Step one: Get in close. If you were actually invisible, you would go and photograph anywhere you wanted. You wouldn't hide. Hiding is not invisibility. You need to get this attitude into your head.

Step two: Be small; not arrogant. Don't portray yourself as the famous photographer from the big newspaper, otherwise you'll get photos of what people want to show you and what they think they want on the front page. Be a nobody, "just a photographer." Then they'll ignore you. That's the beginning of invisibility.

Step three: As Sig Gissler said, project a sense of "joyful entitlement." If you truly believe that you have a right to take photos, and you know that you are performing a benefit for your subjects, then you will subconsciously project that level of comfort to your subjects, and they will take those clues from you and fell comfortable too.

Working Hard

MuJo Mathilde (disembodied head holding zoom recorder 4th from Left) hard at work.

Taking a Break

MuJo (MUltimedia JOurnalist) Sandra takes a break at the Marrakesh Hotel on 103rd in between interviewing.

The Sound of Light

The far more important question most often neglected by physicists when exploring the speed of light is: What is the sound of light?

Multimedia journalist Sydney finds out by collecting rich audio.

Trudging

Multimedia journalist Phil trudges to the supermarket to get the story.