We hear it all the time.
“You have the coolest job.”
And while we take our work seriously, even we have to admit — it’s a pretty awesome way to make a living.
On this blog, we’ll take you with us as we use the latest technology to continue to document the everyday, the unusual, and everything in between.
I still remember the days of spending hours behind the revolving door of a darkroom making huge vats of chemicals to develop film. My hands turned yellow, and I could never rid them of that acrid smell. From the darkroom, a print was handed off to several people, all part of the long process of getting a photo into the newspaper.
Soon we moved on to developing color slides and next it was color film.
Things move pretty fast in this business.
The chemicals are gone, the darkrooms are now just storage closets. We’re using the latest technology — and it’s changing all the time.
Now we’re using digital cameras and memory cards the size of postage stamps that hold hundreds of images at a time.
Digital photography allows us to shoot more images, and get them into the newspaper and on the Web faster than ever before.
And it’s only getting better.
The next exciting step is shooting video and audio for the web. But through every change, photographers remain storytellers. We’re using new technology to bring you the faces, voices and stories of our communities.
As photojournalists, we get to be on the frontlines of the news every day.
We’ve got a unique role: we are witnesses when extraordinary things happen to ordinary people. We capture the emotion of Little League home runs and high school graduations.
But we’re also there for the most difficult moments: a father holding out hope for a son missing in Iraq, a family sifting through the remains of their burned-out home, or a verdict being handed down in a major court case.
Photojournalists see all this first-hand every day, and now we’re inviting you to experience it with us.
With this blog we will tell you the stories behind the photos we take. — the personalities we capture, the technique and skills we use.