Ranger's 90th anniversary

Ranger Peeps...

Mandy Derfler is gathering info from former Ranger kids for an interactive map celebrating The Ranger's 90th.
The topic is where they are now.

Please send me your name, current title and where you work, former Ranger title and when you were here, how The Ranger helped you succeed and a current mug shot, or an old ranger photo.
mandy.derfler@gmail.com

We need it by April 1.

Dr. Lo

From your former professor at SAC

Dear former students,

This is Dr. Lo. You received this message because you are one of my former students in the past. I would like to inform you that we are offering the once-a-year News Photo II class in spring 2014.
This course will be concentrating mainly on shooting news and documentary video and on-location lighting in still photography.

The meeting time is Tuesday and Friday.

A tentative syllabus is attached.

We currently still have vacancy for the class. You are encouraged to take up this challenge. Let me know if you need more information.

EL

I.    Catalog Description: COMM 1317, News Photography II (3-2-3)  17207

(Prerequisite required: taken and passed either one of the following: Comm 1316 News photo I or Comm2311 News Gathering and Writing I)

Meeting hours: Tuesday 12:15 p.m. - 3:55 p.m., Friday 1: :00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m.

This course aims to train students to be an entry-level photojournalist. Building on the basic knowledge students learned in COMM 1316, News Photography I, this course will aim to teach student up-to-date knowledge and skills newspapers and magazines require their photo staff to know and perform. Therefore, in addition to learning how to shoot quality still news photos, this course will also include learning how to shoot video and creating multimedia slideshows.

Learning methods of this course include lectures, homework tryouts and presentation critiques. Students will also have the opportunity to acquire real world working experience from shooting for The Ranger newspaper and The Ranger Online.

Comm 1317 News Photo II Course Outline (Tentative)

Week	Main themes
1	Orientation, Basic video shooting and download
2	Talent show shooting / Basic video editing / Instructional video introduction
3	Advance video shooting and video editing
4	Advance audio technique / Create audio slideshow with iMovie
5	Instructional video presentation / Documentary video technique
6	Introduction to individual project / Documentary video shooting & editing Documentary video ethics and law
7	Flash basics: How light and flash work Introduction to individual project
Spring Break
8	Single on-camera flash / Documentary video presentation
Easter Holiday 3/29
9		MID-TERM EXAM / Single off-camera on-location flash
10		Multiple off-camera on-location flash / Individual project planning, instructions
11		Field trip for on-location lighting
Fiesta Holiday
12		Individual project assistance / Historical/Contemporary photographer presentation
13		Individual project, instruction and assistance
14		Final Exam

Grading Structure

The final grade of this course is composed of the followings: Homework assignments: (40%) Quizzes: (5%) Mid-term (5%) Individual project (10%) Attendance and participation (5%) Final exam (5%) Bonus (extra 5%)       An extra 5% will be awarded to students who do extra works. Details will be further discussed in class.

Ranger assignment (30%) Mandatory: 1. Documentary videos 1 2. Documentary videos 2 3. Documentary videos 3 4. Good use of flash in a documentary way Elective: (choose any one of the following)             1. Good illustrative photo illustration             2. Good sports action or feature photo             3. Interesting feature photo             4. Intense breaking news photo             5. Audio slideshow             6. Photo story                7. Good use of flash in a presentational way (portrait)

Check this article out:

Judge says news organizations infringed on copyrights of photographer

New Year gathering

A nice afternoon chat with some former News Photo I and II students at my place.

Christmas photo

Me and my wife enjoy watching the Christmas light at the Alamo area.

New Year gathering!

Guys,

Wanna come to my place to have a New Year afternoon tea gathering?

Come to my house on Jan. 2 (Wed.) at 3 p.m.
My wife is going to make some dessert, tea and coffee for all of you.

Hopefully, the sun will come up to greet us.

I will invite some former News Photo students to join us.

The address is: 8218 Greenbrier Drive, SA, TX 78209
Time: Jan. 2, Wed., 3 p.m.
Phone: 210-320-2893

Let me know whether you can come or not.

Hello Everyone!! how was Christmas?? I think our new topic should be about Christmas Day!! The emotion on someone's face, peoples reaction toward something. It should be due by Wednesday Jan 1!! Have a Happy New Year Everyone!!!

Formula 1

 

 

 

 

 

I took this pictures like a month ago and i just had to share them. I also wanted to point the cameras that the guys were using, they were huge!!! one day i hope to be inside with a lense like that.

 

 

'What's this?'

I might be a bit strange when it comes to Christmas. All the light is provided by the lights on the tree. The doll on the tree is my tree topper. As you can tell, I'm very much influenced by Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Christmas light in my backyard

I started turning on the Christmas light in my backyard tonight.
Here is a photo of it.
I used the HDR feature of Photoshop to keep the light bulb not overexposed.
There is still a hot ethical debate on using HDR in photojournalism because it is created by a combination of several photos taken at different time.

Merry Christmas!

Who is going to propose the next topic?

It is Christmas time!

Oh my God! I thought you guys will wait until the last moment to post, just like what most of you did for the class. I have to catch up. I will try to find something tonight in my neighborhood.

By the way, check out the Ranger frontpage, Riley got an interesting wild art.

http://www.theranger.org/

In my apartments they change the lights every year

My ornaments

I just love Christmas lights!!

Our next photo assignment should be Christmas lights!!!

The last 5 survivors of News Photo 1

The last 5 survivors of our class

After the seeds were sowed three months ago, some manged to grow as seedlings. These five survived the bugs, diseases, drought, brazing sun and the freezing cold. By now, we all should know that photojournalism is a unique genre in photography, and photojournalists is one very special species of mankind.

Do we help changing the world? Some said no, some said yes. What do you think? What is the meaning of our work? 

The saying from James Nachtwey keeps echoing in my head, "If we don't, who will?"

Have a lovely holiday.

More on NY subway shooting ethics

I've just got this. I have not finished reading it yet. But it sounds like he is providing a different perspective to look at the case.Whether you agree with him or not, you will be the judge.

http://www.poynter.org/how-tos/newsgathering-storytelling/visual-voice/197484/why-do-we-blame-the-visual-messenger-for-tragedies/

About Final Exam

Due to the heavy workload of grading final projects, I really don’t have time to give you more

specific tips on the Final Exam. The best I can do is as follows:

Total questions: 20 (multiple choice)

• 5 questions on the last 2 videos we watched recently
• 3 questions on law
• 6 questions on ethics and conduct
• The rest of the questions include DOF, shooting mode, flash, manual exposure, portrait, focus system and metering.

Enjoy your study.
It is now 9:30 a.m. I hope this post would not get delayed this time.

More discussion about NY subway photograph

This one from NPR worth reading:

http://www.npr.org/2012/12/06/166666261/documenting-tragedy-the-ethics-of-photojournalism

Ethical decision happens yesterday

Save life first? Or take the photo first? Under what situation? And are you going to run it? How do you make these decision?

This is a real life example happened just yesterday in New York.

Check it out:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2012/12/04/new-york-posts-subway-death-photo-was-it-ethical/

And an even more in-depth discussion from NPPA, Mr. John Long and the members of ethics committe:

http://blogs.nppa.org/ethics/2012/12/05/subway-photo/

WarPhotographer video on Youtube

I did a little search on Youtube and found the whole movie of WarPhotographer. However, the movie was cut into 7 sections.

You can watch them one by one. After all, you might need a little fresh air after every 15 mins. while watching this type of movie.

The links are as follows:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_vXfW94Xkc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulhm4K9132Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcAoKFEjiqU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N16JtKfiDjE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN8_C_ADeCY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIhS90pHr7A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hChbScBeQ4

In case we cannot finish watching this movie on Wed., you will have to finish it on your own time. The whole movie is around 1 hr. 37 mins. We've watched about 35 mins. on Monday already.

A few questions in final exam. will be coming out from this movie.