A question for experienced photojournalists

[Edmond_Terakopian]

Hi Dominic,

What the above posters have said is pretty much spot on.
This forum is a great site to find out technical issues and their cures!
I'd suggest either going for a Nikon D70 or D100, or a Canon 20D (which I would recommend). Start with that and if you go for the Canon get a 17-40mm f4L lens, and just see how it goes.
I can't think of any books to recommend. You need to make yourself technically proficient - ie fully understand the mechanics of photography and not rely on automatic modes. Alongside this you need to then start looking around you and also at other peoples work and see if you get inspired. Photography is definitely a marriage of the technical and the aesthetic. I feel its important to know the technical thoroughly to then free and open your mind to the aesthetic; to the content of your image.
Here are a few sites you could look through:
http://www.reportage.org/
http://www.britishpressphoto.org/
http://www.foto8.com/about/index.html
http://www.peterturnley.com/
http://www.amazonasimages.com/menu.html

Edmond

[Tony_Gamble]

Dom,

I'd echo that reference to the wide angle availability. Getting some interest into the foreground is often what lifts a snap into a picture. When I travelled with a Canon G3 I bought one of those wide angle converters ( I think it gave me 24mm or 28mm) and hardly ever removed it.

Forget about those long lenses unless you are into paparazzi work. Or animals which we assume you are not.

90mm is regarded as a good portrait lens. But that is because it nullifies any distortion. But the sort of work you say you'd be photographing might even benefit from a bit of distortion.

I have the 24 to 70 zoom for my everyday lens and I try to force myself to use it wider than narrower - and look for something interesting or relevant to put in the foreground. And remember the wider you go the more depth of focus you have.

The problem with the less expensive digital cameras is that few fixed lens versions have a reasonably wide zoom and the SLR's, because the sensor is smaller than a 35mm frame, turn all the lenses you attach into ones with longer focal length.

I cannot think of one book to suggest. You'll get far better advise around here.

Neil has a jolly good web site with lots of teaching notes. http://www.dg28.com/index.html

And Edmond also has a good site - which I apologise Ed is not in my bookmark list!

When it comes to looking at good images I second the advice to look around the web.

Keep the questions flowing and don't worry you have offended nobody. Clearly you want to learn. It is people who don't 'cause they know all the answers who are not so welcome around here.

Tony
London UK

[Peter_Galbavy]

In addition to all the other good advice - and I say this as an aspiring professional, not making a living from this - is to learn real, hard self-critisism. I find that many folks I come across are too loving of their own "babies" and find it very hard to look at a picture and say things like "Hmm, the horizon is a bit off." or "Great framing, but I can't see the subjects eyes properly."

I am, I believe, my own worst critic - most people are too polite in the amateur world. The stuff on my website is very mixed, simple because a lot of the pictures I take are of and for people who want to see themselves and their friends - many are not technically good enough, but are "good enough" for their purposes.

Over the past few years, I have make the effort to find some technical fault and actively work on fixing it over a period of weeks (like above, good horizons without thinking about it, perspective, subject's eyes, focal plane for group shots blah blah...). If *you* find your own faults first, you can learn to avoid them before an editor decides you're not worth watching out for because of an early batch of rough shots. I think. I am just typing over coffee after all...

Oh, this is why I find digital "superior" to film; it makes learning sooo much more rapid and easier.

[Richard_Van_Nostrand]

I'll add one thing to the excellent information others have offered. Pick up a copy of Ken Kobre's Photojournalism textbook. Just search Kobre on Amazon and it will pop up. It offers very down to earth practical advice for any aspiring photojournalist.

[Ken_Bennett]

[ QUOTE ]
In addition to all the other good advice - and I say this as an aspiring professional, not making a living from this - is to learn real, hard self-critisism. I find that many folks I come across are too loving of their own "babies" and find it very hard to look at a picture and say things like "Hmm, the horizon is a bit off."

[/ QUOTE ]


This is a good point. The guy that taught me to be a photojournalist kicked my butt around the newsroom every single day for nine years. He was very critical of my work, and very difficult to please. Constant butt-kicking has one of two outcomes: either one quits and goes back to waiting tables for a living, or one rises to the occasion.

Learning on your own is harder, simply because it is very hard to truly and knowledgeably criticize one's own work. I don't know of any solution for this in Dominic's situation. Dom, perhaps you know the odd photojournalist who stops by your corner of Africa, and can give your work a good thrashing?

Ken

[Edmond_Terakopian]

Excellent point raised about constructive criticism. I had an art teacher at high school who was so hard on me! We didn't study photography there, but I'd go and see hime during lunch breaks and after school to get his feedback on pictures I'd taken. He was very brutal, but it did teach me a lot about timing and composition.
With this wonderful thing we call the internet, perhaps you could set up a page or two with images that you take, and invite constructive criticism. As long as you don't take it to heart, you'll learn a lot by the feedback.

Edmond

[David_Buzzard]

I think you have huge advantage in your geographic location. You're in a place that's of interest news wise, where there aren't that many other photographers, and it sounds like you have the knowlege and conections to move around safely and get the story. All the technical know how in the world isn't going to do you much good if you don't have access to the story.

I would get a basic digital SLR camera. Being a Nikon man, I would recomend the D70, which with the included lens and built in flash will do well in a lot of different situations. Canons are good cameras as well, but I would avoid the Rebel, as I don't know if it would be up to working in Africa for any length of time. Certainly the D20 would work great.

Start carrying your camera around everywhere, and shoot everything. Concentrate on pictures of people. 99% of photojournalism is taking pictures of people and what they're doing. You have to build up a body of work and the more you do, the better you become. Get in touch with the local bureaus of REUTERS and AP, as they always need stringers. It takes some time to do it, so be patient.

Good Luck,

David Buzzard