After beating 11 male challengers under the wire in the Breeders' Cup Classic last Saturday, the 5-year-old Mare Zenyatta with thankful jockey Mike Smith aboard, posed for photographers on her way out of the winner's circle at Santa Anita Park. Zenyatta, unbeaten in 14 career races, became the first female to win the Classic. Credit Sports Illustrated. Photographer: Peter Read Miller

When I was around 10 years old, my brothers and I received a subscription to Sports Illustrated one Christmas.  Although I already had a growing interest in photography, this Christmas gift would push me over the edge in that every week I was inspired by sports photography that left me in awe.

What I didn’t realize then, but have since realized, was that a large portion of those photographs that made me want to take photographs myself were taken by Peter Read Miller.   Miller has made his legacy with his unique photographs which he is able to capture because of his all important and impeccable timing but beyond that, he is able to look at a scene differently than most.

I still get Sports Illustrated today and each week when a new issue comes I instantly pick it up and look at the photographs before anything else.  This week, four photographs into their “Leading Off” section, a photograph of Breeders’ Cup winners Mike Smith (jockey) and  Zenyatta (mare) pose for photographs on the track in front of–by my count–18 photographers.

The photograph is compelling in its own right but the one thing that drew me to it was the pure brilliance behind the photography of the image.  Instead of getting the same photograph as the other 18 photographers there, the photographer of this image decided to think outside the box and cover the event for what it is; pure spectacle.

It was no surprise to me when I saw who snapped the photograph, none other than Peter Read Miller.  Miller has hundreds of such photographs; images that are unique, compelling, and purely genius.   My goal as a photographer is to capture life in a way that most people otherwise wouldn’t see. No one practices this better than Miller.

Next time you’re covering an event and fighting for position with other photographers, take a step back and ask yourself how you can photograph the event in a way that no one else is.  You may come up short but that may be a small price to pay when 20 other photographers are getting the same image anyways.

Nick Ut's photograph of a 9 year old Kim Phuc covered in burning Napalm helped change the course of history.

Just the other day, I wrote about an AP story regarding the release of some graphic photographs that captured the death of a US Marine. At the center of the debate is a divide on whether the AP was justified in releasing the photographs of Lance Cpl. Joshua M. Bernard in his final moments, or if the agency had an inherent expectation to do so. And while that debate continues, Kim Phuc, the subject of a very emotional and (in)famous Vietnam Photograph taken by AP photographer Nick Ut–who later won a Pulitzer Prize for the photograph, has used the fame of the photograph to spread peace throughout the world.

“Sixty-five percent of my body got burned…I should be dead …So now I think, ‘I cannot change something that happened to me already. But I can change the meaning.’ Phuc said in an interview with HealthDay.

Phuc has dedicated her life to speaking out to burn victims and providing them hope.  Beyond her current role, however, many argue that the photograph of Phuc altered the course of history. With the debate over privacy in wartime continuing, The Photo Dictionary poses this question: Would Phuc’s influence be the same without the release of her photograph?

Share your comments here or follow The Photo Dictionary on twitter and send us your thoughts there.

The Photo Dictionary’s Twitter
http://twitter.com/PhotoDictionary

The gruesome realities of warfare took the nation by surprise and from this (in large part) gave rise to the activism that Vietnam has become associated with.  This activism often turned into hatred as returning soldiers frequently found themselves the targets of protest and assault.  For the first time in American history, many viewed our soldiers as villains and murderers.

As the years passed and the truth about Vietnam and the Vietnam Soldier’s experience surfaced, America took another turn on the American Soldier’s wartime experience. Since the mid-70’s, first hand accounts, biographies, and mainstream Hollywood movies cast a shadow of sympathy upon–not just the Vietnam Vet–but any soldier serving in war.  No longer were our soldiers merely heroic gun slingers, nor were they nothing but blood thirsty murderers. Instead, most came to see them as they were; mostly young kids looking for a chance to prove something to themselves, fulfill a dream, or take an opportunity to get out of a situation at home.  These kids were often put into situations which most could never fathom and asked to do things most could never do.

And this is, many would argue, largely due to the unprecedented news coverage that the Vietnam War received.  The news coverage of the Vietnam war was often imbalanced in its delivery but ultimately allowed for a certain level of truth that the American People never had access to.

On one hand, with the current level of technology, the world is ever shrinking and war coverage has become viewed as a right.  On the other hand, over the past few decades, the American Solider has been given a face and a humanity that simply did not exist before.  We view them as heroic individuals still, but we also see them as our Sons and Daughters, Mothers and Fathers, Husbands and Wives. Because of this, there is a certain demand for the truth and yet a certain respect for privacy that we have bestowed upon our soldiers.

Within the last year, debate on this topic has been centered around whether or not photographs of the coffins of dead American Soldiers returning home should be allowed to be photographed. On one side, an argument is made for the privacy of the soldiers and their families. On the other is an argument for the truth of American policy to be viewed by the American People.

Recently, the AP news agency was forced to make this decision after one of its photographers photographed the death of an American Soldier, twenty-one year old Lance Cpl. Joshua M. Bernard of New Portland, Maine.  AP photographer Julie Jacobson was embedded with a squad of marines on patrol and found herself in the middle of an ambush, which lead to the death of Lance Cpl. Bernard.  Jacobson had photographed Bernard prior to the ambush, during the ambush, and took photographs of a memorial his fellow Marines held for him after his death.

Jacobson, who kept a journal wrote about her experience, was clearly touched by what she had witnessed, describing how Bernard’s fellow marines tried to talk him through the experience.

AP decided to release the photographs, despite Bernard’s father stating that he felt the photographs were a disrespect to his son’s memory.

Read the AP story and decide for yourself. Share your comments here or follow The Photo Dictionary on twitter and send us your thoughts there.

The AP Story
http://www.ap.org/fallen_marine/

The Photo Dictionary’s Twitter
http://twitter.com/PhotoDictionary

A good book is good for the writing and I read many such books while studying history but the one thing that always proved a point more than any other was when a history lesson was accompanied by contemporary images. There is something very powerful about a photograph. There is an intimacy between the viewer and the subject that, I feel, cannot be replicated in any other form of media.

While I worked for a small studio in my hometown, my primary job was in the dark room making reprints of a local photographer whom for the past 60 years has captured every significant event and person that has been associated with the city. As his career–and to an extent his life–faded into the past, he decided to create a book of his work to sell locally. The book was nothing more than his photographs, but together it formed a rich narrative on the past 60 years of the small town.

This is the power of photography. A mentor of mine, who continues to have his work published in the likes of Time, once told me that, as a photographer you do not capture reality. This was a hard thing for me to accept initially but the more I listened to what he was saying the more I understood. In essence, you can capture reality with your camera but it is only the reality as you see it. As a photojournalist you are to be as neutral as possible. It is important to know the power that your photographs may have on history.

Today’s history in photographs

Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the infamous Tienanmen Square Massacre.  There was much that lead up to the events of that day that could be discussed for hours. The one thing, though, that comes to mind when anyone utters “Tienanmen Square” is a photograph by Stuart Franklin of Magnum Photos.  The image of a man holding arbitrary bags in front of a line of tanks.  The image has become ingrained in the minds of anyone who knows of the months leading up to and following June 4th 1989.  At the time, the man in the image became a hero and spokesman for millions of Chinese people.

There have been other images like this in the past. Franklin’s photo is only 1 of Life’s “100 Photographs That Changed the World“.  Life’s series, and title, hit home the point I’m trying to make.  Photography has been and will continue to be a central part of World History.  In their stillness, photographs bring the viewer back to the fraction of a second that the image was conceived and allow that person to focus soley on the moments leading up to and after the image.

Cecil W. Stoughton was there when Lyndon Johnson was sworn in on Air Force One following the Death of John F. Kennedy.

Eddie Adams of AP captured this image durring Vietnam.  The image captured one man’s final moments on earth while demonstrating the brutality of war (it should be noted that most probably misinterpret the image, as the man being assassinated was likely the cause of many American’s losing their life).

Air force Pilots were their with their camera’s as atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

John Paul Filo captured this now famous image of Kent State

The list goes on but the point remains; wherever there is history happening, there are photographers capturing it.  The power of photography can’t be understated.  The quicker a photographer embraces this power–the quicker they can harness it.

Snap on!

More Reading
100 Photographs That Changed the World

Flowers laid for Tiananmen Square

This soccer photograph was the first photograph i had published. This lead to another job with The Daily Iowan which in turn lead to other work.

For the 10 of you that follow this blog (ok, 3 of you), I hope a common theme has become apparent. Flexibility.  As a photographer,  you have to be flexible.  Many young photographers have an idea in their mind that they want to be, say, a “sports photographer”. And so they start shooting nothing but sports in the hopes of someday being at the Super Bowl and while having goals and motivation is a great thing, it is not the only thing that will advance your photography.

Recently a blog i enjoy wrote about the need for people to stray from their most commenly traveled path. The notion being that doing things outside of the comfortable pushes personal development. This, as he points out, conflicts with some previous thoughts he had about sticking with what you’re good at, the argument being that there are people who want to be something they can’t be. Instead of focusing on what you’re bad at, you should focus on the things you’re good at.

This photograph (never published as the brand name was too dominant) was taken for an editorial on energy drinks at college campuses. The look of this image was honed at automobile and track races (panning). I honed this skill shooting sports, then given the opportunity applied it to something completely different.

I don’t think these two perspectives are mutually exclusive. As a photographer, you should try and focus on your strengths, but within that context it is very important to expand your talents and your vision.

If you want to become a great photographer you need to expand your photography skills beyond what you are comfortable with. However, at the same time it is important to focus on your strengths as becoming good at one form of photography will allow you the fortune of experimenting and learning at other forms of photography.

I’ll use myself as the example.

I primarily shoot sports. It’s where I make 90% of my photographic income.  I think it is my favorite form of photography. I enjoy the atmosphere of competition and I enjoy capturing that atmosphere.  It is also, I would argue, the form of photography that I’m best at.

Sports photography is my strength. It is what ultimately landed my first published photograph. Through that first photograph at the Woodstock Independent i was granted the opportunity to shoot many many more photographs for the Independent–sports or otherwise.  With that portfolio i went to The Daily Iowan (a school paper, perhaps a portfolio wasn’t needed) I was hired as a paid intern where i continued to shoot sports but primarily worked on day-t0-day photojournalistic shots–politics, editorials, biographies, breaking news, etc.

Since i first picked up a camera about 10 years ago I have worked to hone my strengths and relied on them to advance my photographic career, but the entire time I have worked very hard to broaden what I consider my strengths.

At the end of the day, the great photographers are great at photography–of any kind. By this, I mean that they can take a camera to any sort of event and photograph it. This may be a concert, it may be a football game, it may be a wedding, or perhaps a family picnic. Photography is not about becoming a great “sports photographer” or “concert photographer” or “horse jumping photographer”. It is about becoming a great photographer. For that to happen, you must embrace all forms and you must become great at them.

This is a photograph published in The Daily Iowan of an MTV Marketing Exec (on the large screen) giving insight to a buisness lecture at The University of Iowa. This was certainly not sports but ultimately my skills as a sports photographer led me to this shot.

To prove the point, i encourage you to check out these photos  at sportsshooter.com.  Yes, most of the subject matter are sports, but the sporting events are merely canvases in which great photographers have painted great photographs.

I would also encourage you to check out Magnum Photo’s.  The subjects of these photographs are often vastly different but the result is often the same: you will find yourself staring at the photograph.

Photo by Al Tielemans / Sports Illustrated

For anyone with quality gear and enough experience to have encountered the laymen masses out there in the world, the following sentence probably rings familiarity: “I bet that camera takes awesome photos huh!?”.  If you’re like me, your lip may quiver a bit before you shell out the diplomatic  response with a smile: “It sure gets the job done”.  Or perhaps you’ve been given some gem about the luck that is so frequently bestowed upon you in regards to your photography.

There is an idea that floats around the masses of new photographers, internet message boards, and those who aren’t familiar with the art that getting great and compelling photographs is about the gear you use and a large dose of luck.

Which do you think requires more luck? Catching a last second pass, dragging your toes in bounds, thus scoring the winning touchdown in the Super Bowl, or capturing that moment with your camera thus landing the most important cover shot of your career?

I would hazard to guess that most people wouldn’t call what Ben Roethlisberger and Santonio Holmes did to win Super Bowl XXXVII luck. Nor would i argue that what Al Tielemans of Sports Illustrated was able to do on that play was the result of luck.

In a recent article Tielmans wrote for SportsShooter.com, he outlines why he was able to capture that photograph that most of us are so familiar with.  The image was the culmination of decades of experience, mounds of foresight, a healthy dose of instinct, and yeah, sure, a smidgen of luck.

Check out the article here

The Nikon D3 is turning heads and winning awards.

For Nearly 10 years there have been two big names in the world of digital SLR photography–and two alone.  Nikon and Canon have dominated the market for one reason: they are simply better.  While their dominance on SLR photography over the past couple of decades is nothing new they always had competitors who pumped out quality film bodies and quality lenses to match.  Their dominance in digital SLR photography (it is important to distinguish SLR’s and point-and-shoots as they are truly a different market) is due to one thing: their camera’s are better.  This is often debated though i tend to feel the debate is futile.

The bottom line is that by removing film and replacing it with a digital sensor, the camera body itself became paramount in determining the image quality of your photographs. This is where Nikon’ and Canon’s competitors have primarily lagged behind.  The simple fact is that for years, if you wanted a clean looking image from your D-SLR you had few choices but Nikon or Canon.  And in that regard, for a very long time Canon has dominated in that regard.  Year after year, Canon released a camera that simply produced cleaner looking images than anything from Nikon.  Some have attributed this to the fact that Nikon’s digital sensor’s are produced by Sony, while Canon produces their own in house.  I think this is not completely accurate but what is true is that Nikon has had to push the bar to compete with Canon and in the last couple of years, many Canon owners (like myself) have been wondering why features on Nikon camera’s are not found on similarly priced Canon models.

Is Canon's dominance on the decline?

This last batch of Nikon Cameras, specifically the D3 and the D700, completely buck the trend entirely.  Not only are the feature rich, but they are producing some of the cleanest and highest ISO images we’ve ever seen.

Users across the internet are blowing people out of the water with their high ISO images captured from the D3. And while the 1D is no slouch, the D3 is simply better.

****

iF Product Design award winner of 2009

It should therefore come as no surprise that the D3 is receiving high praise from the people who hand out praise to inovative products every year. The International Forum of Design has awarded the Nikon D3 with its highest honor for 2009, awarding Nikon and its flagship DSLR the iF Product Design Award. What does this mean for most of us? Perhaps nothing–at least in the short term.  In the long term it could mean a closing of the already closing gap between Nikon and Canon. What it could mean for users of either family of camera equpiment is more competition and more competitive pricing. One can hope, at least.

The International Forum Design (iF), based in Hannover Germany, has sponsored the iF Product Design Awards since 1953, selecting industrial products exhibiting superior design from those manufactured the world over, making them highly prestigious and globally respected awards. Aspects including quality of design, functionality, degree of innovation, ease of use, as well as any effects the product may have on the environment are considered with product evaluation and award selection.

Click here to read Nikon’s Press Release regarding their award

Read more on the iF award here

The world is shrinking every day. Technology (as in hardware) is making it easier to connect (as in the internet) in a way that humans have never been able to before.  Social networking websites like facebook are letting people use this technology to make human contact through non-human means.

With the explosion in digital photography both in terms of professionals (which happened, arguably, about 10 years ago) and with consumers (a little more than ten years ago), the world is beginning to see itself more frequently and in ways not possible before.

What better example to demonstrate this than the Inauguration of President Obama?  The website Flickr.com (click here for some of my work) is probably one of the most famous photography hosting websites that is also a social networking tool. Since it’s creation in February of 2004, Flickr (now owned by Yahoo), is host to over 3 billion images. For those math whizzes out there, that’s well over a million photo’s uploaded a day.

As of today (1/22/09), when you search “inauguration” on flickr, you receive 130,000 results. The vast majority of these results are entire albums. What does this mean? This means that only 2 days after the Inauguration of President Obama that hundreds of thousands of non-professional photographers have their work accessible by millions of people from any corner of the world.

Furthermore, technology is also allowing us to actually see things better and differently. A very forward-thinking photographer named Chuck Kennedy with the McClatchy-Tribune Photo Service, mounted a remote camera (a Canon 5D with a 16-35mm lens) to the podium that the President Elect spoke at. He was able to capture the closest ever image of the President and his family as he took the Oath of Office and posted in shortly on the internet for the world to see. The speed at which this was accomplished (and arguably the ease with which it was done) was not really available in previous years.

Flickr is currently working with Getty Images, a world-leading photography stock photo agency, to incorporate flickr’s images with Getty’s. In late 2006, CNN launched a program called “ireport” where user submitted content, such as photographs, would be incorporated into their reporting. What does all of this mean? Not only is the gap of human contact shrinking but so too is the gap between the professional and Bob down the street who owns his own camera gear.

The internet and the technologies that have been implemented to it, such as Flickr, have allowed us to view things faster and more diversely than ever before. We are no longer bound to the New York Times for our coverage of an event. This is truly amazing when you sit and think about it.

A couple of years ago some really intelligent people created some technology that is beyond words. It takes images from flickr and combines them into an interactive collage of sorts. Microsoft bought the technology and it was was utilized for the inauguration of Obama. CNN has utilized this to capture “The Moment”–or the inauguration, with this amazing tool  Words cannot describe so i urge you to check it out.

So what do we make of this? The world has changed. The world has shrunk. Photographers are becoming ever-important and ever-utilized. So, pick up your camera, capture the world, and then show the world.

For more information on Chuck Kennedy’s photograph, click here

To see “The Moment” click here

A self portrait shortly after a ref ran into me on the sideline. As i said, there is a fine line to be had and i crossed it. But i am now forever marked with photography--or something.

The other day i mentioned that to take great photographs you must become completely ingrained in the scene that you are photographing. What does this mean exactly?

When i got my internship with The Daily Iowan i was thrust under the wing of a “photo coach” named Danny Wilcox Frazier. Danny is a Midwestern based freelance photographer who’s work has appeared in the likes of Time (perhaps most notably a double truck following 9/11) and covered many big names like Clinton, Obama, McCain and others. The message here: He knows what he is doing.

One of the first things he tried to stress to me was a need to get over the fear of getting up close and personal with my camera. He took me and another intern out to the streets of Iowa City to observe us photographing what we saw. I was timid, and shy. To prove his point, he took my camera and walked up to complete strangers and started photographing them. He was being extreme but it proved a point.

You must be able to get up close and personal with your subjects. This is true in any form of photography including sports. Timid photographers often ask me how i can sit so close to the court, football field, baseball dimond, etc. My response is usually, “If you’re not close enough to get hurt, you’re not close enough.” This is, of course, tongue-in-cheek, mostly. But the fact remains: If you are unable to become a part of the scene–without disturbing it–your photographs will suffer.

One of my favorite photos required me to get about a foot away from my subject

A 17 year old pilot-in-training takes my life in his hands

It was a lot colder than when we left and as a result my mind was more concerned with the lack of feeling

that I was developing on my finger tips when he said something to me that I found so profoundly simple that it was elegant; “Now you’ve seen what I do for a living” Justin, the flight instructor out of Galt Airport located in Greenwood Illinois, said to me as I got out of his car.

I had just spent the last hour and a half crammed in the back of an old Cessna photographing Justin instruct his protégé on a landing technique called Soft Field Landing. It’s typically used for landing in grass and dirt air fields where brakes are useless. We took off and landed probably 6 or 7 times. I was confident that I was safe though, especially after he informed his student that this is a technique that they would have been practicing anyways, but that it was a necessity today due to the ice on the runway. Talk about comforting.

The technique requires the pilot to come in as slow as possible and, essentially, stall onto the runway so as to avoid requiring any use of the brakes. This may be hard to imagine but the plane comes in at about 70mph with its nose towards the ground then at the last possible moment the pilot pulls up on his controls and the nose flicks into the air. This causes a nearly instant loss of speed and the plane essentially falls on the runway. It’s fun, especially when a 17 year old student who has been flying for only 3 months is at the helm.

This is Justin’s job. He gets into planes, about 6 days a week, and offers his knowledge of flying (which is based on 11 years of experience) to enthusiastic pilots-to-be. I use to think that the people who give driving tests were thrill seekers, but Justin takes takes it to a whole new level. And yet this is his job. It is as romantic as John Travolta’s character in Look Who’s Talking Now. And as he reminded me that I had just gotten a glimpse into his world, I was a bit envious. What an exciting job! And that’s when it hit me; he had just gotten a glimpse of mine.

Today I was photographing the thrill and excitement of flying and landing–roughly at times–a private aircraft. That was today. Last night I was a part of a nail biting finish of a basketball game. Last week I got the adrenalin rush of getting to the fire before it was too late. I have been at the center of the roar of 70,000 screaming fans following a touchdown and on a boat in the Iowa River at 5am to photograph a crew team. I have been at political debates and blaring concerts. I have witnessed the destruction of natural disasters and the happiness of marriage.

The lens of my camera has captured so many different jobs that, in a sense, I have lived all of them. And that is the beauty of photography. No matter whom I’m working for or shooting for, I am always experiencing the world through my camera. That is part of the excitement of being a photographer and the quicker that is embraced, the quicker your photography can be taken to a new level.

I am of the belief that you cannot photograph a subject without completely embracing it, completely being in tune with the scene. Yet there is an important balance to be had. Justin offered to fly the plane to capture whatever I wanted; I have had athletes pose for me; I have had guitarists epically stand above my camera. All of these would have made great pictures, but none of them would have been great photographs. I think it is important as a photographer, and paramount as a photojournalist, to not become a part of the photograph. You must be engrained in the scene, yet completely and totally ignored by those subjects in it. That is my job.