Tag: competition

Judging the Wedding Photojournalism competition

I was recently asked to to be one of four judges to pick the winners in the quarterly competition of the The Wedding Photojournalist Association. As I was looking at the work, I was reminded how I had judged the same competition six years ago, before I was blogging regularly. During this round of judging, I was keeping notes to share with the organization and the competitors. Naturally, I thought of turning those notes into this blog entry. Read More

The business side of workshop teaching

In my last blog entry, I wrote about how interns/teaching assistants can maximize the opportunities that such professional opportunities can offer them. Since then I have received a few comments and queries based on what I wrote (including two that are at the bottom of that blog entry.) This week I want to answer another professional development question, in this case about photography workshops, which I saw posted in a forum. It was one of those rare questions that I see on line which I actually feel qualified to answer. Read More

The end of the world as we know it

I have been blogging since August of 2008, initially twice a week and more recently once a week. I have learned a lot of different things in that process. I know myself much better as person, as a writer and as a photographer. I know the blogosphere much better and I know blogging itself much, much better. Today’s blog will explore some of the things that I have learned over the last 45 months as a “blogger.” Read More

Singapore suggests

In January I spent three weeks in Asia, mostly in Singapore. As always it was a stimulating trip on many levels. The food was great, the company equally good and the workshops were a blast. I have been trying to put a bit of distance between myself and that experience. I want to figure out which parts were really important and blog-worthy (and which parts were fun when they happened but don’t have much long term meaning.) I do this because unlike some bloggers, if I write about something to soon after it happens, I usually emphasize the wrong thing. Read More

Lessons learned judging a photo contest

I spent time in early October judging the annual Pollux Awards, which are given out by the Worldwide Photography Gala Awards. The juror’s statement, which I wrote after the judging, was recently posted along with the winning work. The whole process was an education for me. I thought that turning my experience into a blog entry would enable me to take others on the same educational journey that I recently undertook. Read More

What I like about… (a video)

I spent an afternoon talking with people at a minor league baseball game in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, asking them what they liked about minor league baseball and this is what they said…

The myth of greedy photographers

In May, I wrote a blog entry that was about politics, had little to do with photography and argued against “the myth of over-burdensome regulation.” Today, I am going to follow up on that blog entry. I will be returning to politics to explore a bit of American history where the federal government did go too far, in my opinion and photography was at the core of the situation. Read More

The myth of over burdensome regulation

I follow certain topics on the web, and in the “old” media very closely, including, of course, my passion and profession, photography. I also closely follow issues such as politics, news from India, the foreclosure crisis, the media itself (old and new) as well as events in the Middle East, etc. All of that is not terribly unusual. But what is extraordinary to me is the one subject that I follow the most closely, after the obvious topics. I recently realized that, in this day of partisan divides my perspective on this one issue mirrors my perspective on government in general. (Spoiler alert here! I am about to get political.) Read More

Singapore musings

I just finished up a series of workshops in Singapore. Throughout the ten days I was there, I jotted down notes, which were little musings that popped into my head based on things that caught my attention. As I was leaving Singapore (for Vietnam,) the various notations reached a kind of a critical mass and so I am sitting down during my first few days in Ho Chi Minh City and writing this blog entry. Read More

They plan on eating our lunch

Normally, I try really hard to stay away from political commentary in this blog. Partly out of fear of offending readers of divergent political views. Mostly though, I am afraid that I have nothing else to add of any value to the discussion of the day. This week was one of those rare times where the fates came together and I feel perfectly comfortable writing what looks like, on first glance, a politically focused blog entry. The astute reader will follow this piece to its conclusion to see how it relates to many of the ongoing themes I blog about (probably too often.) Read More