alittlenews

The Pilgrim brings a wonderful blend of photography and faith to his blog. (click the image for a trip to the blog)

I want to introduce some new additions to my blogroll.  I know many of you may not ever visit the sites listed there and that is fine.  However, if you can find a minute, or an hour or two, visit the sites and see what is going on with some really fine photojournalists and photographers.

Leading off is my co-worker Jeronimo Nisa.  Jeronimo is a native of Spain and worked in Africa for some years in radio before turning his attention to photojournalism.  Jero is a masters degree holder from the University of Missouri, one of, if not the, most prominent photojournalism programs in the country.  The Decatur Daily is very fortunate to have a person of Jeronimo’s ability on our staff.  Jeronimo’s unique perspective on America can be seen in the images on his blog, “Jero’s Picture Journal.”

Next up are two heavy hitters in the photo world.  Chase Jarvis is an amazing shooter.  Those of you who read Strobist will immediately recognize his name and already be familiar with his work.  Robert Benson is a wonderful portrait shooter among his other talents.  Both of these guys are west coasters with Benson being from Southern California and Jarvis the Pacific Northwest.  Nice additions to the blogroll.

My co-worker Jeronimo Nisa's blog features his perspective on life in America and on photojournalism. (click the image for a trip to the blog)

Finally, and in many ways my favorite addition, is NPS rep Bill Fortney who publishes his thoughts under “The Pilgrim Chronicles.”  Bill is a deeply spiritual man with an obvious love for God and he is not afraid to let you know about it.   Just my kind of guy!  I have already asked Bill to do a guest post for Alittlenewsphoto in the future so be looking for his thoughts here before too long.  Being an NPS rep, he travels extensively and his photo galleries on his web site are filled with stunningly beautiful images.

To keep you up to date on a couple of others in my blogroll, Jay Janner who is a staff shooter for the Austin American Statesman in Austin, TX is leading the Sportsshooter montly clip contest standings right now.  Jay is lighting things up.  Vincent Laforet who is almost beyond words to describe his talent, has changed coasts and now splits time between NY and LA.  Nice.  A bicoastal life in two of the world’s most famous cities.  Plus he and his wife have just welcomed a new addition to the family.  Vincent is the guy who shot the amazing video you have seen on the Canon site using the 5DMKII in only one weekend.  It is just sick to have that kind of talent.  Do drop by Mark Rebilas’ blog from time to time.  You will be hard pressed to find a better sports action shooter than Mark.  He shoots for people like ESPN the Magazine and a number of really big time web sites.

There are some really great sites all across the web and I am sure some of you guys know of sites I have never heard of.  In fact, Dwight Hayes who lives in Arab, Alabama right across in the next county from Decatur, referred me to The Pilgrim Chronicles. Feel free to share some of your favorites in the comments.  As always, thanks for reading.

Since I am referring you guys to other web sites right now, let me give you one more to check out.  I am fortunate enough to have worked with this young man for several years at The Decatur Daily and he is in the blog roll but you may not have been by his site before.  David Higginbotham is quite simply among the finest and most creative photographers I have ever worked with.  He has a full time job working for NASA and he did a guest post for me about that last year.  What I am showing you now is some of the finest portrait and wedding work you are likely to see, anywhere.  David allows me to tag along and assist him on some of his weddings and it is an education for me.  I always find it fascinating how he works with the clients.  I will be standing there holding a light for him, literally, and wondering what in the heck he is shooting.

We were doing a wedding at the Huntsville Museum of Art one time last summer and he had the bride and groom between two massive columns.  I honestly could not see what he was shooting.  It looked like crap from my point of view.  Then I saw the image and was just stunned.  That is why I was assisting, if you know what I mean.  Dave has a very special talent for working with beautiful women.  (Yeah, I know, get your minds out of the gutter.  It is not what it sounds like.  Not to worry Anna, I have my eye on him!)  Photographing beautiful people beautifully is a skill set that is difficult to acquire.  I can make almost anyone look ordinary, even ugly, but Dave can take the ordinary and make them look great and when he has a beautiful person, the results are stunning.

Not so tough you say, let me use an analogy.  Before Phil Jackson coached the Bulls, MJ was not the six time champion he became after Jackson arrived.  The Lakers were not champions until Phil arrived and then he took the talent others couldn’t handle and crafted champions.  Dave is like that with these brides and portraits.  He has real talent.  He is probably blushing right now and planning to embarrass me again with one of those test shots I have to model for as an assistant but the truth is the truth.  You go check out his blog, davidhphotography2, and let me know if I am exaggerating.

You are going to see a really cool magazine layout he did in Mobile which I have a frame grab from above, and I get a little bit of credit for this one.  Dave borrowed my EOS 5D for the shoot and used it exclusively.  (He has since repented and bought himself a new Nikon.)  I don’t even think I got a credit line for that one.  Dang!  Well, it is not everyday I get to brag on a friend so I wanted to take this opportunity to do it.  This may not have a lot to do with the day in and day out work of photojournalism but you look at his portrait work and his editorial work in that magazine and you will see techniques you can adapt to your shooting style even in daily newspaper work.

Here’s to you my friend.  Keep that Nikon clicking.

The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.