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 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.