In 50 years, when we’re in another Depression or recession or whatever we’re in, folks are going to be referring back this multimedia and book , Driftless in Iowa, by Danny Wilcox Frazier, the way we look at the Farm Security photos from Dorthea Lange and Arthur Rothstein and others. This is a stunning, evocative piece of work. It’s a six part series, each about 5 minutes, and although I had a million things to do I could not stop watching it. A must-see.
Once you watch that, you’ll need some relief, and I recommend this site as absolutely the best digital photography how-to blog out there. Don’t let that middle finger put you off.
Steven Frischling, aka “Fish,” is running a “Travel Photography Boot Camp” twice in June, in San Francisco and New York. Steven is a photojournalist who flies more than any human being I know. But why is his course called a “boot camp” and not, say, a workshop? Steven tells us: “The Flying With Fish Travel-Photo BootCamp is unlike any educational experience you have encountered as a photographer. The focus of The BootCamp is simple, to force its participants outside of their comfort zone while teaching them how to adapt and succeed! Participants arrive at the airport and are not informed of their destination until they receive their boarding passes allowing for no time to prepare and requiring participants to be ready for anything.” So if you’ve been feeling a little coddled lately, why not try a little basic training with Master Sargeant Fish? Can you say, “SIR, YES SIR!” while field stripping your D700 in a strange city?
I had a nice phone interview with Matt Brandon, aka The Digital Trekker, the other night where we talked about the biz. Matt is based in Asia and does a lot of work for NGOs. He contacted me about an interview, but I was too lazy busy to write answers to his questions, so we did it by phone and Matt’s posted the audio interview here. You have to suffer through my Jersey accent and a lot of “ums” and “uhs” (note to self, “no more interviews after splitting a bottle of wine with Peggy over dinner!”), but we covered some interesting ground.
Bob,
Thanks for the link to the Media storm site. Like you I couldn’t stop watching it. Not only did I watch “Driftless” but I watched another half dozen video essays. Being diagnosed with Parkinsons was scary at first but I still have not been hit with the extent of the disease that I saw in “It ain’t television, it’s brain surgery”. It gives me hope that if and when I get to a similar point that something can be done to help. There were so many other video essays there to watch that I put the site in my favorites column. Thanks for an eye opening site and a mind blowing experience.
Be good to yourself.
Fred
Fred: I’m glad you enjoyed the site. I have a friend who is a producer for Mediastorm and he works on so many interesting projects. Well, I’m heading to Chicago for a job next week and I’m staying with our old friend Henry Feinberg. Save a few bucks on hotels!
Loved the link to the “best digital photography how-to blog out there.” I’ve been setting my camera to A for Awesome mode, but I’m thinking of changing to P, which I’m pretty sure stands for Professional. Funny stuff.
Fred Hill
26 May 2009Bob,
Thanks for the link to the Media storm site. Like you I couldn’t stop watching it. Not only did I watch “Driftless” but I watched another half dozen video essays. Being diagnosed with Parkinsons was scary at first but I still have not been hit with the extent of the disease that I saw in “It ain’t television, it’s brain surgery”. It gives me hope that if and when I get to a similar point that something can be done to help. There were so many other video essays there to watch that I put the site in my favorites column. Thanks for an eye opening site and a mind blowing experience.
Be good to yourself.
Fred
Bob
27 May 2009Fred: I’m glad you enjoyed the site. I have a friend who is a producer for Mediastorm and he works on so many interesting projects. Well, I’m heading to Chicago for a job next week and I’m staying with our old friend Henry Feinberg. Save a few bucks on hotels!
FredJouldd
28 May 2009Thanks, good article.
Alan Haynes
29 May 2009Bob,
Loved the link to the “best digital photography how-to blog out there.” I’ve been setting my camera to A for Awesome mode, but I’m thinking of changing to P, which I’m pretty sure stands for Professional. Funny stuff.
Alan