Picture editing

Rick Madonik, Staff Photographer

 

 

 

Wednesday nights’ Season Opener for the Raptors showed just how subjective photography is. What one person likes, another may hate. What a photographer might think about a particular image can be seen differently not only by the public at large, but by editors also.

 

Carlos Osorio and I both staffed the game. The Raptors have a host of new ballplayers and the NBA continues to be a strong draw in Toronto. Its not unusual for two photographers to be assigned to certain games, and this usually rates as one of those situations.

 

The most interesting aspect, for me, was how our pictures were used. Before the pages for the paper closed Wednesday night (or Thursday morning) it seemed like the Sports department gurus adored what I sent in and didn’t take a shinning to young Osorio’s offerings. Sometimes that happens, and I have certaintly been on the receiving end of working all night and getting nothing in the paper. It happens.

 

When the web put up a gallery a little later in the evening, there was retribution for Carlos. It was his images, plus a few from the wires, which made the gallery. Carlos owned the gallery, and I owned the paper.

 

With Jose Calderon’s final seconds heroics (he was fouled as he went to the hoop hard) which helped seal the win, the frame Carlos snapped of Calerdon screaming following the foul is intense. I thought his frame would surely make the paper. Sadly, neither the paper nor the web used it, so I’ve included here for you to see.

Carlos Osorio

Carlos Osorio

Carlos Osorio

 

Rick Madonik

 

Rick Madonik

 

Rick Madonik

 

Vaccination clarification

I wrote a blog (below) about a photo-op I attended earlier in the week at Toronto General Hospital.  It was brought to my attention that I miss-used the term 'placebo'.  In among those who actually received a shot that day were several people who posed for photos pretending to get a vaccination but in fact did not.  They did not receive a 'placebo' injection but did not receive the H1N1 vaccine either.
I apologize for the inappropriate term but the fact remains that all too often there are official photo-ops and gatherings where certain events are fed to the media inappropriately and then the media is blamed for the lack of truth in journalism. 
I think we all should try to do better-media included.

Richard Lautens/Staff Photographer

Photo Op not Truth Op

Richard Lautens, Staff Photographer

The H1N1 debate rages on this week.  The government is ramping up the vaccination clinics and there is a major PR push to have everyone get their shots.

This week, Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews was part of a photo-op at the Toronto General Hospital.  Front line health care workers are to be some of the first to receive the vaccination and Matthews was on hand to watch some TGH staff get their shots.

The photo-op was held in a typical small examination room in the Emergency department of the hospital.  Picture a half dozen TV crews, 4 or 5 still photographers, several reporters, 4 nurses, the President and CEO of the Hospital as well as Matthews crammed into a room that typically has room for a small bed and a stool-it was a little ‘friendly’ in there.

Various folks came up in front of the camera and dutifully bared their shoulders to the camera, received their shot, were given a candy bar and sent on their way.  Following the shots, several dignitaries answered questions and spoke to the camera.

After the official part was over, we all scrambled around to make sure we had the names of all the jabbers and jabbees.  The surprising part was that several of the nurses admitted that they had received a placebo as they already had their shots. 

Shame on you TGH.

 

  A nurse gets a shot from another nurse as Health Minister Matthews looks on

 

 Richard Lautens/Toronto Star

Metallica

EDIT:

Wednesday October 28, 2009.

As promised here are some more Metallica pics.

Kirk

Love the stance.

More James.

Kirk

Robert Trujillo

Lars

Saw this photo after i had gone through my edit again. I quite like it.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Carlos Osorio

Staff Photographer

My ears are still ringing from the Metallica show last night (in a good way)!! These guys know how to get it done. Out of all of the concerts I have ever been to at the ACC this one had the loudest and definitely most fierce crowd!

They had a team of security guards around the stage trying to contain the mosh pit and the people who flew out of it!.  Awesome show! (Read Ben Rayner's review.)

James Hetfield

Kirk Hammett

Crowd Surfing

 

I think these guys might of been saying  " YEAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!"

Raptors

Steve Russell, Staff Photographer

Last week I blogged about the Leafs, it is only fair that I take this week to talk about the Raptors.

Of the professional sports here in town, basketball has to be my favorite.

It is a fast game and offers players sporting little equipment, a small field of play and loads of action. But the big reason is that the Raptors have two of the players league that are very expressive, Chris Bosh and Jose Calderon.

CB4 is already in mid-season facial expression form!

While hockey and basketball are both very fast sports, I like sitting on the baseline, you are way more into the game then when covering hockey through a small hole cut into the glass.

Kevin Garnett encourages his teams defence after being pulled in a preseason game Boston won.

You hear what the players are saying, what the bench is yelling, how the players argue a call and what the referees say when they huddle to discuss a call. You hear good hecklers and bad hecklers. You get to hear Raptors Super Fan Nav Bhatia chirp at the visiting bench. Sometimes you get a touch and sometimes my daughter gets to see me on TV.

Chris Bosh forces Marquis Daniels to dish off the pass instead of shooting.

The news paper is made to display basketball pictures, players well over six feet tall that shoot or jump at a basket that is ten feet off the ground is the perfect recipe for a vertical picture. The new media that we feed, including this blog is much more horizontal friendly and that has us thinking constantly about how to get pictures that fit that frame.

It's not easy.

Hopefully the Raptors make things more difficult for opposing shooter this season.

Here are some pictures from my first Raptors game of the season

And because of the nature of our job, earlier in the week I was supposed to shoot the Raptors but got called off to shoot a fashion show! Amazing enough, it moves just as quick back stage and on the runway.

-srussell@thestar.ca

iPhones have arrived....

Rick Madonik, Staff Photographer

A lot of folks have waited a long time for iPhones to come to our workflow. Over the last two weeks, the department has been outfitted with the nifty little communication devices.

Its a remarkable little gadget, really. Its multifaceted and will help us to file pictures quicker, and easier. The other communication abilities also fit our needs. Everything from vocal directions, to voice calling, to texting, to internet searches - are all useful tools.

One feature also will be the camera in the phone itself. On "breaking"  news, the Star web site can be fed as quickly as possible by sending images from the phone. The plan is once that is done, we go about shooting pictures as we normally do, and later sending a host of pictures which are available for production of the paper, and updates on the web.

Just to test it out, as there is a bit of learning curve to navigating the numerous applications, I snapped a quick picture of one of my dogs and emailed to myself. Its low light and she wasn't too keen to stay still as she anxiously awaited a treat, but I wanted to see what it would look like. In the end, considering the awful light it was shot under, it's not too bad. Tomorrow I'll give it a test during daylight and see the comparison.

It will interesting incorporating this tool into the way I go about my daily business. It will be very interesting to receive my assignments directly and having the ability to simply click a link on an address and get a driving route all at once.

 

Ethics, Computers and Photojournalism

Richard Lautens, Staff Photographer

 

Many thanks to those of you who came out the Henrys Photo show at the international Centre to see Jim Rankin, Steve Russell, Rick Madonik and myself.  It is always a pleasure meeting fellow photo-enthusiasts.

Perhaps the most asked question (next to the one about my long hair in the promo photo) was concerning Photoshop and computer manipulation.  This seems to be a hot topic.

The advent of easy to use digital cameras and various photo editing and manipulations software made photography fun for a new hoard of photographers.  With this new technology a new art form was born but the ability of many people to discern the truthful image from the false became almost impossible.

A number of famous digital manipulations were called out on the carpet, including the famous shark leaping for the helicopter, OJ Simpson on the cover of Newsweek and the cover of The Day In The Life Of America to name a few. Public confidence in photojournalism was being eroded.

We take this very seriously at the Star.  We do not sell newspaper, websites or ads – ultimately we sell integrity.  If you don’t believe us, you go elsewhere.  It is a simple equation.

We try to bring you a visually truthful representation of events.  Period. 

In terms of Photoshop and other software, we do traditional darkroom techniques such as lightening, darkening, cropping and colour balance.  If we go to any greater lengths for features like food or fashion, we tell you by calling it a ‘photo illustration’ in the bottom right hand corner.

We take a lot of pride in our work and spend many hours of learning new technique, working on stories and frankly just plain waiting for the right moment.  Occasionally life is just plain messy and so are the photos.

For a full explanation of our photography Code of Ethics, please check out our website at  http://www.thestar.com/article/145048.

 

Richard Lautens/Toronto Star

The way of the Leafs

Steve Russell, Staff Photographer

I grew up in a house with a die hard Leaf fan, I was a Montreal fan. I had to hear all about the great Leafs over the years, Darryl Sittler, Rick Vaive, Lanny McDonald, Garry Leeman, Miroslav Frycer, I heard about all of the men that would never have a ring on their finger for bringing the Blue and White the ultimate hockey prize.

It seemed a little cruel to me, having the current Leafs dressed in the jerseys of the greats from the 1990's. More than a few of the people in the seats would have loved to see those guys all on one team.

I'm a little less of a Habs fan now, I don't keep up with the team. I'm still not a Leafs fan, I still enjoy tormenting my brother about their difficulties. But, in the dozen plus years I have been working in Toronto, my interest in the team is huge. It's my job to know all about them and I no longer root against them. I watch them all the time, it helps me do my job better when I know how they play, same for the Argos, Blue Jays, Raptors, Rock and TFC.

And when a Toronto squad does well, it makes our jobs a little more fun, the teams are more pumped, they play with a higher level of intensity, the fans are happier and it opens up an opportunity for photographers to go on the road to cover play-offs. Loads of work and stress but also a lot of fun.

I covered my first Leafs game of the season Saturday night. After the first period I was impressed, I could not believe that this team hadn't won a game yet. I was impressed, I could not believe that the team out on the ice, crashing the net, hitting and winning races to the puck hadn't won a game yet this year. If it wasn't for Lundqvist the score would have been lopsided in the Leafs favour.

On a breakaway, Jason Blake is stymied by Hendrik Lundqvist, one of several great scoring chances the Leafs had.

What happened during the first intermission, I don't know. I'm sure it had the fans in the stands equally confused and frustrated.

Fan's signs and booing let the Leafs know how they felt with the team's efforts in the third period.

You can see a gallery of additional images from the game here

-srussell@thestar.ca

How many layers today?

Rick Madonik, Staff Photographer


Any of my coworkers will tell you I’m no fashion guru. But everyday I go to work I have to decide, "what do I wear?"

This isn’t about looking good - although many wish I would incorporate more of that line of thinking into my morning decisions, they are, in fact, based more on practicality.

How will I tolerate the day’s weather, or conditions, is far more likely what I consider.

Now that autumn has settled in, and winter is galloping straight ahead, the biggest decision of the day is "how many layers?"

Today, was a four layer day.

With the temperature forecast to be in low single digits, and knowing I was headed to stand in the cold at Argos practice (the facility is at U of T’s Mississauga campus), I layered up. Surprisingly, the biting wind encouraged me to don an early appearance of the GorTex windpants.

Weather can be the a photographers worst enemy. Unfortunately, news photographers rarely know how the day will develop, so there is real need to be flexible. You have to employ the versatility of being sent to a variety of assignments. Dressing in layers is the only way to go.

You can find a good chunk of the day, if not all of it, standing in one spot for hours on end exposed to all kinds of weather. At the same time you could end up working in the studio most of the day, then have to run off to crime scene where you stand, in one spot, exposed to whatever the weather system is spitting out.

I have even taken to layering my hands. I use a thin cotton glove which fits tightly (and is warm to about 10 d C) under a wind resistant glove, which fits snuggly. Both allow me enough tactile sensitivity and flexibility to manipulate dials and buttons on the camera, or to easily change lenses.

Decisions of the foot cannot be taken lightly either. Which shoes, or hiking boots (low vs high top), or weather proof boot (again, high vs low) is the best choice to get you through the day?

On long, cold outings, how many foot and hand warmers to carry, and when to open them, can also figure into the equation. Being exposed to freezing temperatures for hours doesn't do much for computer batteries either. During last January's inauguration of Barak Obama, Tara Walton and I both slapped body warmer heat pads to pieces of equipment to keep the batteries from drainning in the cold.

I’m already missing summer. The decisions are easier!

Rick Madonik and Tara Walton on the Washington Mall after the inauguration of Barak Obama. After 5 long hours on the Mall from early morning, we had a two hour walk back to the office. Hand warmers were employed on computer batteries, pockets and gloves.

Toys, Toys, Toys

Richard Lautens, Staff Photographer

 

Photographers love stuff.  We love cool little gadgets, convertible pants and all manner of electronic whiz-bangs. 

Frankly, we are just kids with expensive toys.

There are those who get into photography just for the toys and those who are into photography for the images.  Many years ago I did some house and babysitting for CBC radio talk show host Andy Barrie.  He knew I was interested in the photography world as was he. 

One day he offered to sell me a bunch of photo equipment after he came to the conclusion he had become more interested in the equipment than the pictures. He had decided to pick up a Polaroid camera and just concentrate on the pictures.  He found it very freeing to stop worrying if he had the right lens or camera.  He decided to just worry about the scene beyond the camera and not the camera itself.

23 years later I still think back to his decision and how much it makes sense.  Too many of us lust after the latest camera/lens/flash etc… instead of just getting very proficient with the equipment we already have.  Here at the Star we have lenses that cost over $10,000 and lenses that cost $100.  Either can be great or  useless depending on the picture you are chasing. 

What I am saying is that the fancy cameras that abound these days are the equivalent of a wrench to a plumber-they make sure they get one that will be robust enough for day to day use but also that it is the proper size for the job at hand.  The wrench can only do what the plumber asks of it and nothing more, just as a camera only works if you point it in the right direction at just the right moment.

Of course I still love the toys however, particularly when the company pays for them.

 

Just for the drool factor, here is my daily carry at the Beijing Olympics with everything from Satellite phones to portable hard drives to computer locks to cameras and lenses.  No wonder my chiropractor likes my job.!

 

Richard Lautens/Toronto Star