Mitt Romney: for The New York Times

Covering political campaigns, Republican or Democratic, is always interesting. There's something very Americana and biblical about the gathering of the people, the clamoring of hope, the need to believe in someone greater than themselves, the politician - the shepherd gathering and leading his flock to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The following images are from Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's stop in Portsmouth, VA.

*Click on any photo to launch slideshow and view images larger. 

Troubling Heart Defibrillator: for The New York Times

More often than not news photographers are faced with assignments where the shooting situation is not ideal. Sometimes a last minute assignment comes in or the story just isn't that visual. However, you do your best to try and make lemonade out of lemons.  Some factors often faced are access to the subject, the lighting in general, or the location, lack of planning and so forth. 

My recent assignment, for The New York Times, to make a portrait of a high school football coach Greg Jessee offered a couple of those aforementioned challenges. Originally I was set to meet Mr. Jessee in Norfolk, VA and grab a portrait of him that somehow connected him to academia, communicated he was a coach and also conveyed a more serious tone. I was told that the coach had experienced a malfunction in his defibrillator that caused him to become unconscious on the sidelines of the football field during a game. 

Once I called Coach Jessee I was grateful to find that he was willing to meet me on the field where the misfiring of his defibrillator occurred, awesome! Now I just had to beat the rain. 

Upon arrival I knew we would only have a few minutes to shoot - rain was imminent. For the most part, the light was flat and lacked any character. I popped off a few frames and as I expected, there wasn't anything too exciting happening in the photographs. 99.9% of the time I shoot using strictly available light but that approach wasn't working this time so I moved on. In the end, I pulled out my strobe and connected it to the camera with an off-camera sync cord, it helped. I shot for about ten minutes and then the rain came. 

In the end, I wish Mother Nature had given me more time to get to know the coach and to really work the assignment. I reckon you win some and you lose some. 

You can read the article here. 

Hipstamatic HATER

Amid the recent wake of the debate regarding Damon Winter's award winning images from Afghanistan, NYC based photojournalist Michael Christopher Brown took to the streets of Libya armed only with his iPhone.

Select images from Michael Christopher Brown's Libya 2011 - In Progress

Unlike Winter's essay, Brown's appears, for the most part, to draw less attention to his chosen instrument and more on the content and composition of his chosen subject matter. Although I have always been a huge fan of Winter's work, I found his winning essay shot with his iPhone less engaging. If you're curious, Winter discusses his stance on his tool of choice in detail over at the NY Times.

That said, looking at Brown's work I'm  less concerned about the tool he used as I found his images both visually emotive and informative.

Although I don't want to open up the same debate as previously battled on many blogs I do find this new trend in iPhone documentary work interesting. I also feel that the reaction to the use of the iPhone alongside hipstamatic software within the photojournalism community is equally fascinating. It leads me to wonder how this trend will affect the history of photojournalism and future documentary work. 

Personally, I admit, when I first saw everyone posting their hipstamatic photos on every social media hub and website I could think of, I HATED it. I hated that everyone, their moms included, could seemingly make the most banal scene somewhat visually interesting. I hated that it felt like the this new hipstamatic application was just one more threat to making my job as a professional photographer less relevant. I mean, it was bad enough that every hobbyist with the latest digital SLR and Photoshop thought he/she was a "photographer." Right? And now this?!

Having seen Brown's work from Libya and to some degree Winter's I think I might have been missing the point. Besides, why am I threatened by any of this anyway? Shouldn't I just rise to the occasion and strive to get better everyday so that the difference between me and a hobbyist is clearly apparent?

In today's world, as history has proven, expect change, embrace change, and most importantly, as both Winter and Brown have done, take advantage of that change. 

What do you think? 

Love in the Hood

Photo: Matt Eich / Luceo Images

A flattering shout out from my homie and Luceo Photographer extraordinaire Matt Eich over at the New York Times Lens blog.

Disclaimer: I only had to pay him a lil less than a 100 bucks, buy him fine wines and chocolates and rub the corns on his left foot. Bargain.