Publicity Photo Used to Illustrate “A Decade of Destruction”
November 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment
As a professional visual artists we spend lots of time talking about the end use of our work. When estimating an assignment or stock licensing agreement we always want to know how will the media we create be used. Does it make sense to charge the same licensing fee for an image used on a billboard along Highway 101 in Silicon Valley vs. a thumbnail on a website that gets 10 hits a month? No.
When I saw a SanDisk publicity photo being used to illustrate Newsweek’s story, “A Decade of Destruction” and then again on the MSNBC.com homepage with the headline, “Decade in Review, How the Internet Ruined Everything” I laughed out loud because I think nobody at SanDisk could have predicted this. In my opinion it is a great product photo. Here is my best guess as to how it happened.
Here is the photo published at Newsweek.com:
Screengrab of Newsweek.com from November 12, 2009
Here is same article on MSNBC.com article with a slightly different headline:
Screen-grab of MSNBC.com home page on November 12, 2009
A glance at the credit line indicates the photo was provided by Business Wire via Getty Images. Here is the link to the image with original caption at Getty Images and a screen grab below: http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/51120725/Getty-Images-Publicity
Photographer John Canning was in Libya in 1994 when he created this image with Tourag nomads. He was trekking across the Sahara desert shooting photos with author Richard Bangs who was writing an article for Well Traveled on Slate.com. For this image, Canning thoughtfully setup and positioned his tech gear (logos are all perfectly position for Brunton portable power system, laptop, Lowepro camera bags, Pelican cases, and Indiana Jones’esque hat). He downloaded the images from his Nikon DSLR while the Touregs’ gathered around. Canning handed Bangs the camera who snapped the photo.
SanDisk got their hands on the photo via Canning. At some point down the road, either SanDisk or maybe one of their reps, used this photo along with a press release about something or other which was picked up by the Business Wire. Business Wire is in cahoots with Getty Images and anyone searching the Getty Images site will be served up Business Wire imagery when applicable.
Along comes a Newsweek story and the photo editor searches Getty Images. Viola’…. the perfect shot arises… a perfect juxtaposition of the old and new; rich and poor; black and white. Was the photographer compensated for these uses? I have no idea. The moral of the story is that when an image does out on a wire service, kiss it goodbye as everyone will get a cheap and essentially unlimited piece of it. If you are the shooter, make sure you’re compensated for unlimited use on a wire service.
One of my images was sent to the Associated Press some years ago and published well over 1000 times. I never got a dime for it.
Interviewing President Bush
August 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment
On May 6th at 11am I found myself face to face with one of the most controversial figures in modern history and the leader of the free world, as part of Yahoo! News’ in-house crew conducting the first exclusively online interview with a siting president at the White House. President Bush (aka dubya) was the guest of honor. Mike Allen from Politico asked the questions. Our Yahoo! News camera crew included Geoff Nelson, Brad Williams, Jon Brick, and myself.
We started with a short walk and talk in the oval office and then finished the interview in the Roosevelt room. Lots of local and national media (TV, print, and online) picked up the story. David Letterman used it in his monologue and Jon Stewart ran with it on his Daily Show.
As far as shoots go it was pretty routine; set up the cameras, lights, mics, etc…. What wasn’t routine was the opportunity to roll the cameras on something that had the potential to make national or even worldwide news. And sure enough “the boss”, as his staff affectionately call him, did not disappoint. Portions of the interview were picked up by all the major networks, but the highlight was the controversy that erupted over his seemingly benign comment about why he stopped golfing which caused MSNBC’s Keith Oberman to go ballistic.
Why he stopped golfing
http://tinyurl.com/697paf
MSNBC’s Keith Oberman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RlD8FEwe2k
After the interview was over, our crew hunkered down in a conference room in Washington DC, chopped the footage in snackable clips, which were published immediately. Very little editing was actually done other than adding some photos and b-roll here and there. We did not touch Bush’s answers. We did not edit for brevity. What you see is exactly how it went down.
Here are all the clips. Bush’s “Dr. Evil” impression is getting some great play around the net (some might say it went viral).
Bush does ‘Dr. Evil’
http://tinyurl.com/6xzfyw
“I’ll consider” gas tax holiday
http://tinyurl.com/5mcods
Global warming “is real”
http://tinyurl.com/6l7svb
“America doesn’t torture”
http://tinyurl.com/68tmqd
Why not pull out of Iraq?
http://tinyurl.com/5z8a6p
Was Bush misled on Iraq?
http://tinyurl.com/5gca2r
Why he stopped golfing
http://tinyurl.com/697paf
The Middle East: What’s at stake
http://tinyurl.com/5qp4ue
Father of the bride
http://tinyurl.com/6l5m6c
Bush’s Dream Team
http://tinyurl.com/62z3hq
‘Assure fans like me’
http://tinyurl.com/3ryrug
Who will win on ‘Idol’?
http://tinyurl.com/69wvz8
The full interview
http://tinyurl.com/4sp2ve
On Assignment to the World’s Highest Internet Cafe
March 10, 2008 | 1 Comment
In the Spring of 2003, the worlds highest internet cafe opened at Mt. Everest base camp at 17,500 feet. It was also the 50th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary’s historic ascent of Everest. I went to base camp to check it out. With the help of my brother who had recently learned php programming language we built a live reporting tool (aka: blog) that enabled me to send photo and text dispatches by satellite phone from the Himalayas. I’ve re-published the 5 text+image posts that I sent out while on the trail.
4/26/03 : Intro Hi-Tech Everest
First – the assignment — In search of technology in this region of the world my plan is to trek to Everest base camp and hopefully indulge myself in a latte while surfing the net at the world’s highest internet cafe at 17,400 feet. A little background — From the New York Times to NPR reports of the construction of the world’s highest internet cafe have been surfacing over the last six months. A young, technically inclined Sherpa, named Tsering Gyaltsen is planning to create an internet cafe at the base of Mt. Everest. Servicing the thousands of trekkers and hundreds of climbers that pass through base camp, the cafe will raise money for the Sagamartha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC). The SPCC is the local environmental agency and is charged with keeping the natural environmental clean and healthy. It will take me about 10 days to get to base camp and I’ll be passing many, many villages along the way. I’ll see what other technological advancements are occurring in the area and report on them here. It’s also the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of Mt. Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa. Everest base camp is reportedly packed with expeditions and it will be interesting to see the developments over the course of the season.
I plan on arriving in Everest base camp around May 6th and will stay for about five days. I’ll interview Tsering and hear the story on how this ambitious project came to life. As I’m equipped with a sat phone I’ll try and upload a few images each day.
The images from this story are available for editorial license. For more information please contact April Jenkins at the New York office of Corbis-Sygma.
4/27/03 : Khumbu Arrival
Watching the flies land on my arm to lick the sweat and realizing that had I had not the energy to shoo them away was a just a tad disconcerting.
On all my previous trips to the Himalayas I was part of a climbing expedition and had trained vigorously for that purpose. Since climbing was not a part of this trip, I had neglected any form of exercise. My ego had gotten the best of me and now I am paying for it by feeding these hungry flies. The morning started with a twin engine Otter flight into the border like town of Lukla where I was greeted by hundreds of Nepali porters looking for work. As the plane made a quick u-turn after dumping the passenger luggage at the end of the landing strip, I stared at my four bags and was forced to quickly make a decision as to which porters to pick. From 9,000 feet at Lukla my porters and I trekked to the town of Monjo, about 5 hours away.
To be quite honest I’m simply exhausted and I’m going to bed. Didn’t see much in terms of tech today. Mostly barefoot or flip flop clad porters carrying items to villages higher up the Khumbu. Beer, whiskey, a television, wood logs, rocks, and the backpacks and bags of the few trekkers on the trail.
# 030427_025 — From the safety of their home, two children entertain themselves by watching the foreigners trek by.
# 030427_001 — Porters with full loads round the corner with the Dudh Kosi river far below.
# 030427_031 — A porter with an empty load returns to the Lukla airstrip to hustle his next load.
4/28/03 : Rumor of the World’s Second Highest Internet Cafe
With the flies still hovering on each bead of sweat dripping from my forhead I plodded up the legendary, thigh busting Namche hill on my way to the Namche Bazzar.
Namche Bazzar is the largest village in the Khumbu and sits in a horseshoe shapped cirque cut into a mountainside. The sacred snow capped peak Kumbila looms above. In 1998 an enterprising Sherpa set up a computer with a 24kpbs dialup connection to Kathmandu. The computer was located in a small room next to the town bakery and thus the “World’s Highest Internet Cafe” was born. Since the local telephone exchange was notoriously unreliable and also blown up by the Maoists in 2001, no one really took the internet cafe seriously.
I figured the internet cafe would still be there, but in what condition, I did not know. I was surprised to find four desktop computers networked together serving up a “high-speed” connection at 94kpbs down and 64kbps up. However, at the time of my visit the place was empty.
There was a little more traffic on the trail today. Loads of porters carry anything that could be lashed down with a tump line around their forehead, and American, British, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish and German trekkers. My search for tech on the trail did not yield much. A pair of trekkers operating a GPS unit was about it.
#030428_046 — Tenzing is the manager of the former world’s highest internet cafe. Business is slow right now and on this rainy day there’s not much to do except drink milk tea and watch the rainfall.
#030428_039 — Pasang is the mother in law of my Sherpa guide. Although she lives in another villae, she rents a small apartment in Namche Bazzar where she stays during the trekking seasons.
#030428_039 — A busy morning at the internet cafe. Three tourists emailing and one computer blasting music.
4/29/03 : Lighting Storm Wreaks Havoc
Wreaks havoc on the internet connection that is….. After repairing the recently crowned “World’s Highest Internet Cafe” at Everest base camp, Tsering Gyaltsen ran down to Namche Bazzar yesterday arriving late in the evening.
While enjoying a cup of fresh coffee at the bakery this morning, Sunosh informed that Tsering was in town. I was expecting to meet him at base camp so I wondered what was up. We sat down in the living room/office of his company, Namche Technical Services, and he explained the situation. Speaking in almost perfect English, although so fast I hard a hard time understanding him, he told me of the lightening storm that blew up one of the Cisco radio transmitters postitioned on the side of a small mountain called Kala Patthar. It had been a scramble to reestablish the internet connection on a different route, but it was accomplished. Immediately after he ran 30 kilometers from Everest base camp to Namche Bazzar.
The good news is that I can now report that indeed the internet cafe is up and running at Everest base camp. I will meet Tsering there around May 6 to see the entire operation.
#030428_018 — Relaxing in his office, Tsering Gyaltsen recounts the lightening storm which knocked out the internet cafe at Everest Base Camp.
#030428_039 — A busy morning at the internet cafe. Three tourists emailing and one computer blasting music.
#030428_045 — The Cyber Cafe advertisement in Namche Bazzar.
4/30/03 : Ethernet Cable Severed
Up here the dog ate my homework doesn’t quite work, but maybe the yak stepped on my modem will.
Seriously though, my ethernet cable was severed this afternoon by a well meaning trekker playing with a sharp knife (note to self: Benchmade knives and ethernet cabling don’t mix) that I had loaned him. The ethernet cable connects my computer to the sat phone and allows me to send data (images, etc.) back to the states. Now I am uploading this dispatch from the cyber cafe in Namche Bazar. Depending on my skills in splicing tiny colored wires back together again, or finding a spare cable, I may send more images tomorrow. Otherwise my next dispatches will be May 6 to 10 from Everest base camp.
5/09/03 : First Morning in Basecamp
Arrived in base camp yesterday afternoon to thousands of prayer flags flapping in the wind.
After getting settled, I made my way over to the Cyber Cafe which was packed with trekkers sending email and surfing the web at a buck a minute. The temperature last night was a chilly 8 degrees fareinheit, however, with the door of my tent shut and the sun beaming in at ten am this morning, the high could reach amost 70. FYI-This dispatch is being uploaded directly from the cyber cafe. Photos to come momentarily.
5/10/03 : Images of the Cyber Cafe
This internet cafe or cyber cafe as Tsering and assistant Dinesh like to call it is fully operational.
With three laptops and a desktop trekkers and climbers drop in on a regular basis. Tsering’s wife Yangji serves up fresh coffee, tea, steamed momo’s and noodles (all complimentary), while Dorje the cook takes the orders.
Everest and Lhotse are lit up as the sun sets over Everest base camp
Bob Hoffman, expedition leader of the American Commenmorative Everest Expedition, pays a visit to the cyber cafe.
From noon to 2pm the cafe is usually busy with trekkers making the day trip from nearby Gorak Shep. Dinesh oversees the acitivity.
Three climbers huddle over the computers checking their hotmail accounts and downloading the weather reports.
Climbers outside the internet cafe.
Climbing Everest with Blind Climber Erik Weihenmayer
December 10, 2007 | Leave a Comment
On May 25, 2001 I stood on the summit of Mt. Everest with Erik Weihenmayer and 9 other of my good friends. As everyone was high-fiving all I could think about was my job. I had a seemingly simple job; shoot some publicity photos of Erik and the team on top with the sponsor banners. There was one problem. I had arrived on the summit later than everyone else and as I was gearing up for the fastest shoot of my life my climbing partners were ready to head back to Camp 4. Generally speaking, the top of Mt. Everest is not a place where you chill out and have a tea party (although I’m sure it’s been done by now). You get up, check out the view, shed a few tears if you can muster up the emotion through the altitude induced narcosis, and then get the f$@k down.
For the full report check out the near daily dispatches with photos from the expedition at http://www.2001everest.com/
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
Bridging the gap…
June 15, 2007 | Leave a Comment
I had a situation recently when being vetted out for a cameraman job on small documentary where the director took objection to the still photography side of my career. What I mean is that he considered me a still photographer and not a motion photographer. I was solidly recommended for the shoot by a person for whom I’d done video work in the past. As many freelancers do, I found myself position of explaining who I was and what I do. Apparently I seem to occupy a less than common niche of a pro-shooter that professes to be able to shoot moving and still pictures.
Why the big deal? Well for starters all my mentors in this field told me to pick a niche and then do it well. I followed this advice wholeheartedly, not only wedding myself to the medium of 35mm photography, but also to the subject matter. The jack of all trades approach was specifically discouraged. Climbing, mountaineering, snowboarding was my life and the subject of my photography. Things change. At this point not only has my subject matter greatly expanded but also the medium.
In late 2001 I immersed myself in the world of moving pictures; specifically online video. I studied and practiced and learned as much as I possibly could at the time. When no one would hire me to shoot video, I went out and made my own movies (most of which are so bad I’m embarrassed to show them). In that process I found there was a need for pro “image makers” that could be versatile and shoot still and video in the field and deliver it in near real time.
Great framing, composition, and lighting are critical whether your watching a movie or looking at a still photograph and that’s how I explain myself. On the video side I love the added elements of sound and story telling. On the still side the underestimated power of a single image which can move someone to tears or inspire a nation will never stop luring me.
Saved by a CD
September 14, 2006 | Leave a Comment
We’ve all been there… working on a document, computer crashes, document gone. No backup. Not so bad if it was just a ½-page, but really bad if it was your 300-page graduate thesis. What about loosing 10-years of family photographs?? Now that would really, really suck. Being a professional digital photographer these days means having a skill set that goes way beyond creating a great image. Of course there is the business side of photography, but what I’m talking about is the technical computer side that is now wrapped into the photo business. There is probably some ratio of how much time I spend on my digital workflow compared to each image I make, but I’ll just say it’s a lot. And it’s a bit tiresome; I mean I’d rather be shooting than doing daily backups. I’ve been shooting digital since 1998 and my backup methods have changed with technology.
My Gear List
January 2, 2006 | 1 Comment
Ok, for the gear heads out there, this is a simplified list of gear I’ve been using pretty regularly for the last 6 months. I should preface this list by saying that I tend to go fairly light for three reasons. 1. Speed is safety. 2. In fast moving situations being able to react quick can be the difference between getting THE SHOT or getting nothing. 3. I simply hate being encumbered by loads of gear.
Photo – two Canon 20D bodies (with 8 camera batteries), three zoom lenses (wide, medium, and telephoto), two 4-gig and six 1-gig Lexar CF cards, two 1-gig Lexar SD cards, three Lexar jump drives of varying capacities, Lexar 32-bit CF card reader.
Video (yeah I shoot a lot of video as well) – one Sony HDR-FX1 camera, one Sony HDR-HC1 camera, one wide angle lens, one telephoto zoom.
Photo Caption: My editing and data transmission setup inside my tent during an assignment in the Himalayas.
Computer – Since all editing is done the field and transmitted back to my clients’ by sat phones (usually M4 or BGAN units serviced by Telenor) or other sources of data connection, I carry a full suite of equipment to edit my images, video, audio files, and just about anything else. I used to be all fired up on using the Toughbooks by Panasonic or the Rugged Notebooks by Compaq, but I’ve found that most laptops can handle rugged conditions with a little extra care and a well-padded case. Right now I’m using a Compaq Presario R3000 series laptop.
Power & Bags – Lenmar battery charging units, Brunton or Bull Dog portable power systems, packed into any of the myriad of Lowepro bags and/or Pelican Cases that I use regularly.
Photo Caption: My good friend and filmmaker Mike Brown checks his email on my communications setup from about 21,000 on the north side of Mt. Everest. Check Mike’s site out at www.seracfilms.com. Mike was shooting video and I was shooting stills on a project with blind Tibetan teenagers climbing mountains www.climbingblind.org.
In Search of Sea Gypies
December 23, 2005 | Leave a Comment
The moment I step on a plane I usually feel a sense of relief. In the confines of a plane, nobody can call you, nobody can email you, and nobody can make demands of you. I’m a one-man band for the most part. As small business owner, I not only do the shooting, but also am the marketing and sales departments, accounting and archive departments, IT guy…. The list goes on. If you’ve ever worked for yourself you know what I mean when For better or for worse most of my time is spent dealing with the aspects of running a business than shooting photographs.
It’s Nov. 18th, 2005 and I’m writing this on a plane heading home. I’ve been in Thailand for the last few weeks doing a story on the tsunami survivors; specifically the Moken people who are also known as the sea gypsies of the Andaman Sea. The client was Yahoo.com and they will publish the story on a new adventure channel called Richard Bangs Adventures. The Moken come ashore during the wet season and build temporary homes on the beach, only to leave for the sea again in the dry season. With all the loss of life caused by the tsunami it was amazing to find out that the Moken people lost almost no one.
Photo Caption: Living on the sea as the Moken people have done for generations, this husband and wife pay a visit to our boat in hopes of getting some free gasoline for their outboard motor. Photo (c) Didrik Johnck.
These stories are incredibly media rich with photos, audio, videos, and writing. Over the course of the assignment we sent up 5 dispatches to the editors at Yahoo. Each dispatch consisted of a day or two of shooting, after which the team hunkers down for about 6-8 hours while the writer writes, and the photographer and videographer edit. I’ll send everything out over the internet to my editor, who reviews and publishes the material almost immediately. This online format allows for stories to be published almost immediately and with an amazing diversity of material. Previously the same story in a print magazines would get published 6 months (or longer) after the field work and with a few images. When it’s all said and done this Thailand piece will publish about 11-12 videos, 100-120 images, 5-10 audio clips, and 5000 words of writing. I’m not just talking about quantity here, as everything is highly edited for quality. Check it out at: http://adventures.yahoo.com/thailand.
Gear wise I was traveling a bit heavy with almost 110 pounds of gear (about 105 pounds of equipment between three Pelican Cases and 5 pounds of clothes…). I’ve had bad experiences with camera/electronic equipment being affected by salt water and I brought backups of almost everything.
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- 31% Bridging the gap...
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