Behind the picture: The final word (Mar. 30/14)

john king photo
This senior couple living in Camrose, Alberta, share an ice cream at the park on a summer day.

I have a strange relationship with my old photos. I bought this shady hard drive from a small local dealer in the town I was living and working as a newspaper editor. It was necessary because my computer at the time was fading fast due to a faulty power chord that no longer connected with the hardware. So I bought this hard drive and put all my photographs on it, and then forgot about the thing.

In recent times, however, this hard drive has come to my full attention because after digging it up, and connecting it to my computer, it made this repeating clicking noise, and then I wasn't able to get in there. After taking it to the computer shop, I was able to get those photos off and and have them put on a newer, I guess better, hard drive.

Once I could finally access all my photos, I was able to get this one: the picture I remember taking in 2005 in Camrose, Alberta, on a summer day of a senior couple sitting at a wooden picnic table sharing an ice cream at the playground.

I was a cub community reporter then, and this is my best shot.

Behind the picture: technical description (Mar. 28/14)

john king photo
A technical breakdown of this photo reveals a close up shot using maximum shutter speed.

To get this shot, I placed myself on the inside edge of a large racing track just around the bend of the first corner off the starting gate. I did this because the sun was out, it was midday, so I was dealing with the glare from snow as well as really bright conditions. 

I realized the two main obstacles in my path to achieving the result I wanted, was the sun and the speed of the racers. But I also wanted good focusing on the subject. So do to this I used a 50 mm lens, dialed the shutter speed up to its fastest setting and then dialed down the aperture just enough to get decent depth to the photograph. I shot with the sun at my back, and that's evident from the shadowing in the picture itself. 

The leader pulled ahead of the pack the first turn, and this is what I was able to get as he pulled around the bend ahead of everyone else. He stayed in first position throughout the race, and ended up earning top spot in the series. While ice motorcycle racing is loud and fast, I thought about all the times when I enjoyed riding the dirt bike I had as a child.

In those times, the loudness and fastness was muffled by not only the helmet I wore, but because of my concentration as well. It is the calmness and precision on the part of the racer that I wanted to convey.

The technical aspects of the photo are as follows:

Model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi
Date-Time: 2/9/2014 – 12:19:47 PM
Shutter Speed: 1/3200 sec
Exposure: Manual
f-stop: 3.5
ISO: 200
Lens: EF 50mm f/1.8

What is photo gazetteer?

The story behind the photograph is just as important as the photograph itself. This is a blog that will look at the stories behind the photographs shaping our world, everything from the small and mundane, to the big and spectacular. Feel free to comment on photos and share your own.

Behind the picture (Mar. 23/14)

john king photo
Lean into it: Micheal Griffiths speeds into the first turn of the final pro 250 class race as
part of the Stake Lake Ice Racing Series, a five-race format held on recreation grounds at the lake
located about 30 minutes south of Kamloops, B.C. Griffiths won the series with a 162 point total.
Mike Griffiths placed second with 111 points, and Dan MacKenzie placed third with 102.

I recently had the chance to cover motorcycle racing in winter. While I grew up in the frozen climes of Canada, I have never witnessed motorcycle racing on a frozen lake before. I picked the best day I could because it was clear sunny skies, albeit, the high pressure system made for chilly picture taking. But I have taken pictures in really cold climates before.

The handful of memories I can scrounge up include 10 seconds on a windy ice road smack dab in between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk, which are places in the Northwest Territories. I had decided to stop and take a photograph of how the snow looked as the wind picked up and sifted the fine-coursed snow across the top of the endless frozen landscape. I nearly froze my fingers to take this photo because that's what happens when you expose your skin to temperatures in excess of -50 Celsius. Another time, I was taking photos of dog sled racing in northern Saskatchewan, and again, I nearly froze my digits. I was lucky, though, because the organizers had a bonfire that made things okay. 

While it wasn't nearly as cold out at Stake lake, it was cold enough. Add that to the release form all photographers sign before going out onto the track, the field of motorcycles flying in excess of 100 km/hr, and the fact that I could get as close to the action as I wanted, it all made for an interesting couple of shots.

I found out who the point leader was on this final day of racing, and then decided to focus the majority of shots on him rather than waiting for a crash to capture or shot with multiple motorcycle racers. I wanted a straight-forward picture, something elegant and calm amid the noise and chaos of the scene.

To me the beauty of this sport is in the tranquility of the rider, seen here, as he passes me by on a lazy long curve out on the lake.

Behind the picture: technical description (Mar. 21/14)

Mark Poblete photo
A technical breakdown of this photograph reveals it was taken at a distance, which implies
no permission and a some decontextualization may have resulted.

There is always cause for concern when a photographer goes out and takes pictures of homeless people. In my mind it could be similar to people going out on safari in Kenya and taking pictures of local people. Then there are the professional photographers who seek this kind of content on purpose -- you know, they'll go and take photographs of heroin addicts or starving children in the Middle East or what not. Many of these types of photographs happen while professional and trained photographers are out on assignment. 

Then there are photographs such as the one above, where seeming amateurs go out and take pictures on their own steam. I admire this photographer's initiative to take a series of photographs about the homeless. Of course, I ask myself what for? And I wonder what nationality, or what class status, the photographer is, and where they were born, and raised.

While there is no doubt this photograph requires more context, the shot itself, when decontextualized, stands out because of the interaction between the photographer and subject. The picture, however, was taken at a great distance, which indicates the photographer didn't get close to the subject. Aside from that, a slower f-stop allowed the photographer to place emphasis on the homeless man by acquiring good depth-of-field.

The technical aspects of the photo are as follows:

Model: Nikon D3200
Date-Time: 12/03/2014 - 8: 47 a.m.
Shutter speed: 1/500 sec
f-stop: 5.6
ISO: 500
Lens: Nikon D3200 70-300mm

What is photo gazetteer?

The story behind the photograph is just as important as the photograph itself. This is a blog that will look at the stories behind the photographs shaping our world, everything from the small and mundane, to the big and spectacular. Feel free to comment on photos and share your own.

Behind the picture (Mar. 16/14)

Mark Poblete photo/Google+
A photograph as part of Poblete's Flickr set entitled, The Forgotten: homeless at Washington, D.C.

There is a ongoing conversation in photojournalism about taking photos in context, and how commentary, also known as the caption, or as journalists call it, the cutline, is just as important as the picture itself.

As explained in an earlier post, the uploading and downloading of photos online is increasing as more users post photos to the World Wide Web. This means many people who don't necessarily work in media fields are posting content online. I recently stumbled across the photographs of Mark Poblete, who posts them to Google+, and who also maintains a Flickr stream. 

While I don't know who Poblete is, I could only find his Google+ and Flickr accounts, his photographs of homeless people reminded me of this debate in photojournalism about context. A great journalism photo shares with the viewer a story, and this story, should be independent of a written translation, because photojournalism is a visual language. Now, that is not to say photos don't need context, they often do, in various cases where the viewer may not know offhand the details surrounding the image. For instance, war pictures often require context, so captions tell readers the name of the war, the date, who's involved and why, and may provide greater context if needed. 

But the best war photographs stand alone without commentary: the two that come to mind are Kevin Carter's picture of a vulture stalking a child in famine-ravaged Sudan and Nick Ut's picture of Phan Thi Kim Phuc running down a street after a napalm attack. Neither of these photographs require commentary, although it could be argued such a thing adds more depth to the journalism. Both of these photographs, however, convey a story visually.

And so does this photograph by Poblete.

Behind the picture: technical description (Mar. 14/14)

john king photo
A technical breakdown of this photo reveals there are many
things to consider when planning an important photo.

Journalists face uncertainty every day. Photojournalists often place themselves in situations that are uncertain. While taking a photo of a drinking water intake seems simple, there are always a variety of things to consider when taking such a photo. 

Having lived in Kamloops, B.C., off and one since July 2012, I have learned how the sun rolls around this place. When thinking about how I was to shoot the water intake, I realized a morning shot before the sunrise would suit my purposes well. This is because the sun shines bright on the river, almost too bright, to get a proper shot of the intake, which is coloured somewhat dusty. At shot at dusk would find the sun and me on the wrong side of a good photograph.

So to do this, I had to go down to the river early in the morning and take a shot before the sun peeked through the clouds. I had to switch to an old wide angle lens I have to get something that contained the river, beach, and intake, as well as the sky and clouds.

Also, I had to find a spot to take the picture as the intake isn't the easiest place along the river to access. After parking my vehicle behind the front side of the intake, I walked a couple of blocks to a side road between some houses. There, I spotted a bit of beach between what I assumed is private property. From there I took my shot about 100 metres from the intake.

The technical aspects of the photo are as follows:

Model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi
Date-Time: 3/21/2014 – 7:50:37 AM PDT
Shutter Speed: 1/1000 sec
Exposure: Manual
f-stop: 4.5
ISO: 400
Lens: EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6


What is photo gazetteer?

The story behind the photograph is just as important as the photograph itself. This is a blog that will look at the stories behind the photographs shaping our world, everything from the small and mundane, to the big and spectacular. Feel free to comment on photos and share your own.

Behind the picture (Mar. 9/14)

john king photo
Sometimes the simplest photo requires weeks of planning for five minutes of perfect light.

In preparing a feature story on an application to build a giant copper and gold mine that has sparked much debate in Kamloops, B.C., I spent several months looking at how residents of this city access their potable water. During this time, I research and talked with local people about the quality of drinking water in Kamloops, what steps the city has taken in the past to ensure a safe supply of drinking water to residents, and how the municipality's water filtration plant works. 

Over the course of these weeks, I searched and searched for a photo to place in the header portion of my Kamloops water project, which will act as supplement to the mining story. At first, I used a photo I took on my iPhone of a pond up in an area known as Peterson Creek. Then I found a shot by the photographer David Wise, but after placing this photo and considering it, I decided I wanted my own photo.

It's been a warm late winter, with days peaking at 10 Celsius or more, and often a warm wind instead of that cold one associated with Canadian deep freeze winters. I had started to take notice when the sun was rising, which has been between 6-7 a.m., and of course, steadily getting earlier. Looking at my other shots for the project, I decided I wanted a pre-sunrise photo to bring out the deep blues in the sky just before dawn. So I woke up a 3 a.m. to clear out the clutter in my "To Do List," and prepared for the early start down at the South Thompson River.

It turned out that clouds created the pre-sunrise type situation I was looking for, and made it too dark to photograph just at sunrise, so I waited a little longer before heading out. While I didn't know the exact location of the water intake along the river, I assumed it would be near the Kamloops Centre for Water Quality. So I headed down that way a little later because clouds were obscuring the sun. Once I reached the area, I parked in a public parking lot and saw that I was just downwind of the water intake, facing the sunrise. 

I walked a couple blocks up to the other side of the water intake so that I may take a photo with the sun shining in the direction of the subject matter. When I reached a side road that led to a small beach section in between two private residences, I started to take shots while the sun was obscured by the clouds. It created for an interesting composition because the tide was low, so it revealed the various things that are mostly underwater in summer. 


What is photo gazetteer?

The story behind the photograph is just as important as the photograph itself. This is a blog that will look at the stories behind the photographs shaping our world, everything from the small and mundane, to the big and spectacular. Feel free to comment on photos and share your own.

This blog is managed by designer and journalism student John King