Digital Camera Fiend - A Camera Review

What photographer hasn’t dreamed of shooting for National Geographic? Exotic locals, a dollop of danger, and the chance to capture the most gorgeous and moving events of our planet.

Any photojournalist who has been in the business long enough has a cache of stories and anecdotes that could hold an entire room in rapt attention, and that’s exactly what National Geographic photojournalist-turned-motivational speaker DeWitt Jones banks on.
Jones (who photographed the above picture) is one of the many keynote speakers bookable through the International Speakers Bureau, a website that connects motivational speakers to businesses and other interested parties.
This website will give you access to hundreds of celebrity keynote speakers from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives: sports figures, investment and business giants, women speakers, technology gurus…you name it.

Find your ideal keynote speaker, read about their presentation, and make contact. Each speaker’s program is described in detail. Jones uses his own amazing photographic work in a slide presentation as he explores with his audience the fundamentals of creativity, what they are, how they exist in each one of us and how we can learn to use them every day. It’s all about unlocking the creative genius within each of us–Jones did it through photography–what will it be for each one of us? This post is sponsored.

Exactly 35 years to the day after AP Photographer Nick Ut snapped the above Pulitzer Prize winning photo of Vietnamese villagers running from a napalm attack, he snapped this photo seen ’round the world:

From the war-torn villages of SouthEast Asia, to the Hollywood Hills home of a fallen star on her way back to jail, Nick Ut has seen it all in his 40+ years with the Associated Press.

The two photos both taken on June 8 depict vastly different worlds and types of suffering. In his heavily accented English, Ut, a native of Vietnam, had this to say to the AP about capturing the moment outside the Hilton home amid a media feeding frenzy:

“It was a very difficult shot, not easy, but I’m lucky I had one nice shot of her crying, calling ‘Mommy, Mommy’…She upset, she don’t want to go back to jail.”

Strange the places a career in photojournalism will take you.

Photojournalism can be a grueling career, working all hours of the day, being ready to bolt to a news scene in a moment’s notice, endless waiting once you get to the scene for the perfect shot.

Is it any wonder that some photographers end up in the underbelly of the profession as members of the paparazzi. It’s grueling and thankless, and nobody likes you, but the pay-off is much higher.

Many news photographers do what they do because they believe they are making a difference. The paparazzi photographers do it purely for the money, and quite often they ruin people’s lives.

But every once in awhile the paparazzi beast can do some good. The recent shots of Lindsay Lohan passed out in a stupor in a car two days after a drunken driving arrest where police found cocaine at the scene might just do this troubled star some good.

The photos, coupled with her arrest, pretty much forced her to enter a drug rehabilitation program and hopefully this time the message will stick with her. She was headed on a one-way path of self-destruction. It could be that the paparazzi photographers who snapped her photos that night indirectly saved her life.

Drug addiction is a serious problem everywhere in this country, not just in the back rooms of Hollywood clubs. It can afflict people of all ages, races, and social classes. The sponsors of this blog post, Stone Hawk Drug Rehab know all about addiction, because they were once addicts themselves.

They are one of the premier Michigan drug rehab centers, which offer 28-day, and 3-6 month treatment programs. The programs feature drug detox to eliminate physical cravings, life skills training, and post-program job referrals.

If Lohan’s stint at the Malibu treatment facility doesn’t work, perhaps she should go far from LA, to say, Michigan for another shot at being clean. This post is sponsored.

don’t shoot, originally uploaded by Tatiana Cardeal.

Talk about an interesting juxtaposition. This photo, taken by Brazilian photographer Tatiana Cardeal, is part of a brilliant set which chronicles a youth outreach program called Afroreggae. Members of the program are performing at a meeting inside the headquarters of the Rio de Janeiro military police.

The slums or favelas of Rio de Janeiro are some of the most dangerous, crime-ridden neighborhoods in the world. This particular Afroreggae event was an attempt to bridge policemen and the favela people. I think the picture says it all.

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Oded Balilty was covering the violent struggle between Jewish settlers on the West Bank and Israeli forces last year when he captured this poignant shot of a lone Jewish woman challenging Israeli security officers.

“I saw this woman hesitate a little bit, and I saw the line of the police and I just grabbed my camera,” Balilty said. “It just was there.”

Balilty, an Associated Press photographer based in his hometown Jerusalem, went to this illegal West Bank outpost near Ra’malla where troops in riot gear were clashing with hundreds of stone-throwing Jewish settlers. Israel’s Supreme Court had earlier cleared the way for demolition of nine homes at the site.

At one point Balilty and his colleague decided to split up to cover more ground. It was then that he came upon the scene that would garner him the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography–photojournalism’s highest award.

“I feel like I kissed the moon. It’s amazing,” Balilty told AP reporters after receiving the award. “I never even imagined it would happen to me.”

Balilty, (pictured left) was born in 1979 in Jerusalem and has spent much of his career covering Israeli-Palestinian issues.

During his days in the Israeli Army he was a photographer for the magazine of the Israeli Defense Forces. After completing his military service he shot for ZOOM 77 agency and the daily paper Yedioth Ahronot. He joined the AP’s Jerusalem photo staff in 2002, as the Palestinian Intifada was climaxing.

He is also part of a team of photographers who were Pulitzer Prize finalists in the breaking news category for their coverage of the war in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah.