Maybe we should try thinking of new new new creative ideas. The Thought Project stopped 150 people and asked them what they were thinking. It’s a simple idea and concept which makes for an interesting look into the personal lives of the people.

Faces of New York worked off a similar concept. The photographer simply asked people what they thought of their face. It’s an amazingly simple concept.

Maybe this is new media.

Polaroid Corp., the Massachusetts company that gave the world instant film photography, is shutting down its film manufacturing lines in the state and abandoning the technology that made the company famous.

I know many photo students try to grab up all the Polaroid film they can find anyways but now it will be even harder for the fun stuff to be found. So go dumpster diving or garage sale searching because it’s going to a tough time finding this stuff.

I don’t like Aperture. Version 1.0 was a catastrophe to say the least. It was slow useless and overall clunky. Photographers everywhere wondered if Apple had made a product no one needed. Then after a while the original team leader left and a new leader was brought in thus releasing version 1.5. It brought a lot of features and improvements that shooters wanted. It wasn’t as bad as version 1.

It still had its share of problems the main one being such a resource hog. I usually had to quit every other application just to run the thing. There is no reason someone should have to close other apps to run a specific app.

Now Aperture 2 is released into the wild. Apple has a lot of ground to make up against Adobe’s Lightroom which at least at WKU most students prefer. The interface is intuitive and simple. Unfortunately for those willing to adopt, as of right now there is no demo download for Aperture 2 available. So as soon as one goes up and I can test it I’ll report back.

After getting sick again on Thursday I was recovered enough on Friday to go out and shoot some of the aftermath of the tornadoes that rocked Tennessee.  We really had no problems with access. One in our group decided to leave for a bit and had a time getting back in. He was chewed out by officers and threatened with arrest, not a great start to a day.  Saturday we had a little access trouble but with some talking to the locals we easily got what we needed.

I know I learned that just keep trying at this stuff and people open up a little bit.

The A Photo a Day blog (which is my homepage by the way) has a great photojournalist mantra post:

I don’t want to work for an industry that is content with the status quo.

I don’t want to work for an industry that is afraid of innovation.

I don’t want to work for an industry that blames its readers when things go bad.

I don’t want to work for an industry that is scared of risk — and success.

I don’t want to work for an industry that is scared of change.

I don’t want to work for an industry that is afraid to have a conversation with its users.

I don’t want to work for an industry that is content to die.

I want to work for an industry that believes in its audience.

I want to work for an industry that can admit it was wrong.

I want to work for an industry that has the audacity to innovate.

I want to work for an industry that always wants to improve, even when it’s on top.

I want to work for an industry that always strives to be the best.

I want to work for an industry that believes there is no such thing as good enough.

I want to work for an industry that puts innovation first.

If this is the last stand for the American Newspaper, I don’t want to go out without a fight. I want to shatter paradigms, destroy cherished icons and push the envelop of innovation. And if all those efforts fail, I want try again.

I don’t want to admit defeat without at least trying. If I lose, I want it to be because I had nothing left to give. I don’t want to lose because I decided it was too hard to win.

I want the audacity of ambition — and innovation.

[Cross Posted from The Journalism Iconoclast]

Enter Photon the self billed “lightspeed” image browser. I personally loaded 233 RAW files in less than 30 seconds. That’s pretty good in my opinion. It supports a “stack” function for quick sorting.

Overall it does not compare to Photo Mechanic but it doesn’t aspire to. Instead it tries to be fast and lightweight. The price comes in at $49 right now, compared to Photo Mechanic’s $150. I would say that I think for 1/3 the price it could be a competitor to the industry standard.

Heather Hughes at the Black Star Rising blog has a post from over a week ago called “Video at Newspapers is about Profit not Storytelling.” Hughes expounds upon a previous article published on Sportsshooter.com called “Video=Self Destruction of Photojournalism“that details how she feels about the role of video in our current industry.

I think we are getting distracted with Flash, Slides & Sounds, and the bells & whistles of the internet and it is getting in the way of capturing moments and doing our jobs as photojournalists. Not too long ago, newspaper photographers focused on getting a great photo, perfecting that craft, doing it day after day, and then they retired. The stories were told and people enjoyed seeing the great photographs (and still do).

I agree wholeheartedly with Hughes and do think that video is not right for the average or even exceptional photojournalist. Technologically video is still lagging behind and it simply does not provide the same experience as the still camera. They are obtrusive and impede the experience of great storytelling.

The whole idea of still frame grabbing exacerbates the problem because it seems in theory like a great idea. In practice it is not. I actually experimented doing HD frame grabbing and was rewarded with flat contrast, interlaced images, and blown out highlights. Looking back it was a bust.

So take 10 minutes and dive into Hughes thoughts on the future of photojournalism.

The Toronto Star has a new multimedia piece “Airsick” that encompasses 20 days and 20,000 still images in Canada. It’s an editorial using time lapse photography and text to discuss global warming and it’s effect on the world around us.

What do you think about editorial photography or in this case multimedia?