Photo by Scott Bourne

If you’re a photographer, chances are, you’re a communicator. Most of the photographers I know are really storytellers. They have something they want to say, and they use the medium of photography to do it.

While it would be easy to focus this post on the communicator, I want to focus it on the audience. That’s something rarely (if ever) talked about in the photo community. Too many photographers make images they like, and then go looking for an audience.

Serious communicators find an audience first, then go craft a story that fits the audience. Photographers should consider this approach as well. If you’re taking photos for kids, you better get down on your knees because they see everything from 30 inches. If you’re taking pictures for an intelligent audience, include lots of details. Get it?

If more photographers could learn this lesson, then the art and craft of photography would be considerably more important.

Nikon announced its new 12.3 megapixel D90 camera with 24fps video.

Read the official deatils at the Nikon page.

UPDATE: Wow this camera looks very interesting. Nikon has sample video from the camera on its site and looking at the video quality, I am very tempted to buy one of these as a video camera that doubles as a very capable SLR. Too bad they aren’t shipping before my trip to Alaska next week. I would have loved to get video of the world’s largest bears with this thing.

Canon sent me a news release at Midnight, EST to announce several new products. Among these were the 50D and a new lens. (More on that later.) I have to admit I was totally surprised by this news, especially since people who had been good sources before, denied this camera even existed. Good job keeping a secret Canon - you sort of actually kept this one under wraps.

More about the camera. The EOS 50D is to ship in early October 2008 at an expected street price of US$1399 in the U.S.

Perhaps the most interesting feature Canon is promising on this camera is the new processor. The DIGIC 4 processor is Canon’s next-generation, 14-bit DIGIC 4 processor. Canon says it offers both more functionality and about 30% faster processing speed than the DIGIC III processor in the 40D. This could very well account for how Canon plans to cram so many megapixels onto a small sensor and control noise.

The camera also offers additional features like Live View, a brighter rear view finder, HDMI out, UDMA support and more. What’s interesting is that it seems to offer several features not found on the flagship 1DS MKIII.

The auto-focus is essentially the same nine-point auto-focus found on the 40D.

Canon also announced a new zoom for its 1.6X sensor size cameras. The EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS. It incorporates two aspherical and two ultra-low dispersion elements. It does NOT offer USM focusing but DOES offer Canon’s four-stop image stabilization.

We’re going to try to get our hands on a review unit and if we do, we’ll get back to you with more information.

EDITOR’S NOTE: These sorts of posts often result in protests from the four percent of you who shoot Pentax, Sony, Fuji, Olympus and other cameras, wondering why we spend so much time covering Canon and Nikon. Please know we’d be glad to cover the other cameras, even though more than 90% of our audience shoots Canon or Nikon. But the other companies so far, have refused our requests for review units. Many of them do not believe in or understand the power of online media and the communities we serve. This is unfortunate since our audience is significantly larger than many of the print publications these manufacturers do supply with review units. So just know, it’s not for lack of trying. Those other manufacturers just don’t care about you guys.

Canon U.S.A. today has announced the introduction of the EOS 50D Digital SLR camera.  This new camera features a 15.1-megapixel sensor with an expanded ISO range and enhanced noise reduction.

We’ll have more on this new camera as information becomes available.

Episode 44 is in the feed or you can download the MP3 at Pixelcorps.TV.

UPDATE: We had some feed problems. For those of you who got the wrong show - try downloading it again from iTunes. The correct show is in the feed.

Hosts: Alex Lindsay
Guest: David Griffin, Director of Photography at National Geographic
Contributors: Scott Bourne, Aaron Mahler, Steve Simon
Locations: San Francisco, Gig Harbor

Intro Music by Scott Cannizzaro

Producer: Aaron Mahler - Twitter: halfpress
Show Notes Author: Tom Newman- Twitter: fogview

Bandwidth for This Week in Photography is provided by Cachefly.

TWIP is sponsored by Audible. For a free downloadable book visit www.audiblepodcast.com/twip

Don’t forget you can win a 10 item pack worth over a $1,000 by linking to us. Details on the Contest page at TWIPPHOTO.COM

NEWS & DISCUSSION

- Microsoft PhotoSynth Goes Live
- PhotoSynth allows you to take a bunch of photos from different cameras and taken by different people and it will pool the photos together and figure out where they are and build a 3D scene that you can tour through. Alex says it’s exciting to pool together images from the web and create these huge tourable things online. We had Bill Crow on the show and I (Alex) have been talking with for years about it so we’ve seen this progress and finally it’s out (on Windows — not Mac). Scott thinks the concept is beautiful but has a couple of questions: What is the final application for it and will people who are serious photographers want to participate because of obvious copyright issues (making your photos a part of other’s photos). Alex mentioned that you don’t need to be a professional photographer to use this. Alex mentioned one idea would be to send out a group of photographers to photograph an area and toss all the photos at PhotoSynth and create a tour. The question asked is can the results be copyrighted? Alex will be traveling for the next three weeks and plan to take a number of test cases.

- Microsoft in Flickr Rights Shock
- While on the topic of Microsoft, they held a contest in the UK prompting Windows Live Image Search. You win by finding the most quintessential “British” image - not by taking the photo, but by finding somebody else’s image online. This did not go over very well especially on Flickr where photos were pulled out of private (group) areas. Needless to say, people went pretty nuts about the rights issue. Nikon UK formally withdrew from the contest with a pretty cranky statement (they were going to be an award giver).

- Canon Ships 100 Millionth Digital Compact Camera
- A special color variation camera will be shipping to commemorate the event. Scott mentioned that these small compact cameras are allowed in places where DSLR and professional cameras are not (e.g. major league baseball games). At some point these cameras will be able to mimic the pictures from the bigger cameras (or use PhotSynth to create the professional image). Selling 100 millon cameras could mean more TWIP listeners.

- Give your iPhone 3G a telephoto lens
- Goofy product from a Hong Kong company.
- 6x Zoom Telescope
- Alex “This is the iPhone version of putting all the big spoilers and crazy stuff on your Honda Accord …”

SITE OF THE WEEK

- Visions of China: Newsweek Olympic Photo Blog
- Scott’s pick because of his love of sports photography. He was staggered by this collection of Olympic photos. You also get an inside look because the photographers are writing blog posts there. Viewing the photos will inspire you to go out and shoot. “That moment in time that you may miss in video can be captured in photographs.” The site also gives you insight to what’s it’s like being a pro photographer covering a large event.

RUMORS OF THE WEEK

- Canon 50D Specs
- More “accidental” inventory listings of a forthcoming Canon 50D
- Rumored specs: 15.1 MP, DIGIC 4, ISO 100 - 12,800, 920,000 pixel 3-inch LCD Display

- Nikon Press Conference on August 27th
- Rumored it could be the D90 or D3S

- News will be building in the next few weeks before the Photokina Photo Show (Sept 23-28 in Germany)

FLICKR CHALLENGE & POLL

- Two Winners: This time three-week challenge: 8
- Winner: Jetty Web by JScullin
- Runner-Up: VIII by mattyb34

- Next two-week challenge topic: Circles
- Moving the challenge from Flickr to Photrade
- Our TWiP Flickr group is over 6,000 Members with over 3,000 in the TWiP Flickr Critique group.

Last poll results: What brand of printer do you use most?
- Epson - 41.6%
- Canon - 29.1%
- HP - 23.6%
- all the rest in the 0-2% range

The group discussed using outside sources for prints instead of using their own printers. Sometimes cheaper and less frustration to out-source the work. Scott still does his own printing. This may be a topic for a future TWIP.

New Poll: What OS do you use for your photography work?
- Apple OS 9
- Apple OS X
- Unix / Linux
- Windows XP
- Windows Vista
- Other

MAIN DISCUSSION - Interview with David Griffin, Director of Photography at National Geographic

- Interview prerecorded and conducted by Alex Lindsay and Steve Simon.

- How did you end up at National Geographic as the Directory of Photography? This is his second tour at Geographic. He started as a designer in 1989. Before that he was a photographer at the Philadelphia Inquirer and moved up to designer.
- What is “Design with Photography”: Working with photojournalism; knowing when to stop; allowing the photography to come forward. At the time the Geographic was a magazine of great photos but not of great design.
- The photographers are not just shooting but are involved in the entire process of getting the magazine published.

- How do you find photographers for National Geographic? It’s more of a challenge now because before (late 1970’s) there was a stepping-stone process where you started out at a small newspaper and worked your way up and got to a scene where the Geographic was the next logical step. That worked until newspapers stopped doing long-form documentary work. Now he has to be more active about it (finding photographers). “Everybody has one great photograph in them. But I’m not hiring people who take one great photograph.”

- With newspapers failing on hard times how is the magazine doing? “The publishing industry is stressed.” The newspaper are on the front lines of a sea-change of how people are gathering and viewing information. The magazine has seen their circulation drop but they have good advertising so they have been able to prop up the loss. The habits of how people are taking in information is changing. The days of going out and doing a shoot and coming back and producing only a magazine is over. You need to move that work into other forms: book, workshop, etc.

- The National Geographic’s web site seems to be geared towards the hobby photographer — how important is that group to the magazine and the future? The Geographic’s considers itself the leader in photography. It’s been great to watch the interest brought back to still photography because of digital photography . In the long run we have the best experts in the world about what is or isn’t a great photograph and make that available to people about their own photographs. This helps to drive traffic to a website.

- What do you look for that makes a great photograph? In story construction they are interested in telling a story. How do you take someone through a complex idea in a visible form. The Geographic sweet spot is when you strip out it’s photography, the National Geographic is a science magazine. Whether it planned too or not, it figured out a way to bring human dimension through photography to science. I’m looking for photographers who understand the content and bring it to life through photographs. At the highest level it makes an emotional connection to the reader.

- How is it that the still photograph has still maintained it communication power in a world of moving images, yet still survived? There was a study done about FlashBulb Memory in Florida .. still photography replicates the way your brain records emotional events in your life. Your brain slows down and captures the emotional event. You don’t want to remember a “segment” of the moment (as in video) but capture the exact moment (still photograph).

- How have you seen digital photography change the way your business works? There were those who said they would never go to digital but now the advantages are obvious and quality is no longer an issue. Geographics has always embraced technology. Three and one half years ago they were 20% digital and within one year they were 80% digital and that had to do with the improvement in sensors. The ability to take pictures in low light (bar light) made it take off. They still have 2 or 3 photographers who still shoot film and they are not forced to go digital. The amount that is shot on stories has double because of digital.

- They use their own content management system to manage the large volume of photographs. David uses Lightroom to manage his own personal photographs.

- What are you goals for the magazine under your tenure? First change was the first field photographer to become editor. He raised the bar for what standards were acceptable for the magazine. Open the place up and looking for photographers from different areas, like the fashion world who can treat objects as art. Bigger question is how do we survive in the future and produce the quality while being financially stressed.

- How are you integrating with the digital world (web)? We are just starting and a year into it. The magazine website needed some work to connect with the readers. He doesn’t want to capture the magazine on line, but the spirit of the magazine on line.

- What advice would you give to photography students who some day want to work for National Geographic? Pursue it, please! We can always use new photographers.

- What qualities do you see in good photographers? They have a zen-like ability to so easily take photographs … they can lock in on the creative flow and communicate it back to a regular person.

- More information about David Griffin

AUDIBLE PICK OF THE WEEK

- This week, Aaron’s suggestion:

- The Last Supper

- Author: Charles McCarry

- 16 Hrs, 13 Min, Unabridged

- From audible: “Charles McCarry has been called the best American espionage writer who ever lived. Now, with the re-release of his classic Paul Christopher series, comes The Last Supper, a tour-de-force that traces the evolution of the OSS and the CIA from the aftermath of World War I through World War II, Vietnam, and the Cold War.”

- Currently listening, but can attest to the first few hours thus far being quite enjoyable. McCarry’s style is different from that of Le Carre (nobody, in my opinion, beats Le Carre’s command of the language and wordcraft), but no less enjoyable.

- TWIP is sponsored by Audible. For a free downloadable book visit www.audiblepodcast.com/twip

LISTENER QUESTIONS

- Q: Listener, Steve Soper writes: I have a comment and a question related to your recent discussion about the limited future of APS-C sensors. I do a lot of sports photography using a Canon 40D and Canon 70-200 f2.8 (and a 1.4x extender when the light is sufficient). It seems to me the 1.6 multiplier effect provides a significant advantage. With a full frame sensor the 70-200 wouldn’t have much reach on a soccer field. Now for my question: I am seriously considering the purchase of the Canon 300mm f2.8. In the future, if I switch to a full frame sensor DSLR, will the 300 mm still have enough reach? And with the expected advances in ISO capability, is it worth the expense of the f2.8 (vs f4)?

- A: Scott answers: First to correct his assumption, with a full frame camera you do have the same reach, all you do is crop which is that’s happening when you use an APSC sensor.
Most serious sports photography is done using 400 mm lens and above, depending on the sport. … You can shoot with shorter lens if you have closer access. In covering motor sports there was very little use of a 300, it was all 400, 500, 600. If you can’t afford the real fast 400s and you are a Canon shooter, go with Canon 400 F5.6, that is a very sharp len and an amazing len for the cost and in the price range. The 300 F2.8 is nice but not enough reach. Scott would rather have a 400 F4 or F5.6.
Alex adds that you are getting more out of a faster lens than just light. You’re getting a shorter depth of field which often times can improve the focus of your image. The sweet spot is at a wider aperture which makes for better bokeh. Most people don’t realize that lens are not at their sharpest at either their widest open or stopped down, it’s somewhere between. So the lower you start the better off you are when it comes to the sweet stop. On a F2.8 len if will be at F5.6. Aaron mentions to look at Scott’s pick (website) because they talk about shots and the aperture and lens used. You can also look at the EXIF data on Flickr photos to get a sense for how the picture was shot (even on your own photos).

- Q: Listener, Brendan Coles writes: Hi TWiP gang. I’ve been thinking about purchasing a fisheye lens for a while now, but after listening to Alex talk about his newest lens purchase I decided to take the plunge and pick one up. I know you can use the lens to take 180 degree super-wide angle shots, but was wondering what software you would recommend to correct the lens distortion afterwards. I was also wondering if you had any tips for using the distortion that results from using the lens for taking creative/unusual shots… other than just taking close ups of people’s faces. Love the podcast, keep up the good work

- A: Scott answers: It depends. I actually like the barrel distortion myself in a lot of the photos because it gives them character. But if you want to correct them, most of the modern software tools like Aperture can do it. And there are specialized tools available. You can also buy rectilinear corrected lens if you have the money. They start around $1,500.

- Q: Listeners have been emailing Alex asking what camera bag he’s using so he decided to answer the question here.

- A: Kata DR-467. It holds his laptop and camera and the best bag he’s ever owned. It sells for about $60 to $70. He will do a video showing how he packs it for his trip and post it in the next couple of weeks.

TIP OF THE WEEK

- Scott provides this tip which also can be found on TWIPPHOTO.COM.
If you are going on a big shoot you may need storage backup. Newer iPods can be “disk mountable” and connected to your laptop and used for external storage. Most iPods with the 20 pin connector can also be used with an adapter that will download photos directly from some cameras.

WRAP-UP

- Scott can be found at http://twipphoto.com and http://aperturenatureworkshops.com

- Alex can be found at http://www.pixelcorps.com and http://www.pixelcorps.tv. Twitter: alexlindsay Alex would also like everyone to give This Week in Media a spin: http://pixelcorps.tv

- Steve Simon can be found at http://www.stevesimonphoto.com. Steve has a presentation at B&H Photo in New York, September 14, 2008.

- Aaron can be found on his blog (which is painfully in need of updates… soon) and via Twitter: halfpress

Send your thoughts, suggestions and questions to: twip at pixelcorps.com

Story ideas and other items of webly interest can be submitted via the TWiP Ideas Del.icio.us bookmarks

Share photos with your fellow TWiP listeners through the TWiP Flickr Feed

Submit your photos for “ruthless compassion” through our TWiP critiques forum.

We have some very loyal listeners. Many of you have contacted us to see if there is a way you can help defray the massive costs we incur in producing the show.

Well now there is a way…

TWIP Apparel

We’re starting small with just a ball cap and a travel/photo vest. We will add items soon. We want to gauge the level of interest and support before we take too big a leap.

If you want to support TWIP, plus have some cool gear besides, here’s what we’re offering.

We have the Scottevest Travel Vest. (sand color) Sizes Medium through XXL. These vests have 22 pockets so they are like a bonus carryon. They’re lightweight, comfortable and breathable. They’re coated to be water resistant. The TWIP logo appears on the left breast.

$125 including shipping in the USA via Priority Mail only. $150 outside the US* via courier.

US Only may purchase through Google Checkout.

We also have the famous Scottevest Tec Hat. (sand color) It has two hidden pockets - perfect for ID, cash or even CF or SD cards. It features Coolmax mesh lining to keep you cool.

$30 including shipping in the USA via Priority Mail only. $40 outside the US* via courier.

US ONLY may purchase through Google Checkout.

These are available in EXTREMELY small quantities. First come, first served. In order to purchase, please send a check or money order to:

TWIP C/O
Bourne Media Group
P.O. Box 1114
Gig Harbor, WA 98335

Be sure to include your email or telephone number and a shipping address. There is a $40 returned check charge for NSF checks. Please allow two to four weeks for shipping.

Hats are one size fit all - they fit even Scott’s big head! And the vests are M-XXL - PLEASE BE SURE TO INCLUDE YOUR SIZE. If you fail to include a size we will send you whatever we have on hand. There are NO REFUNDS or returns so purchase accordingly.

*International orders must send US funds via an international money order. Limit one hat and one vest per address.

Photo by Scott Bourne

It’s a fact that many people do not understand the concept of Copyrights. In fact, some people have never heard any explanation for the word.

Some Copyright infringement is the result of downright evil folks who would rather steal than pay their fair share. But a good portion of it is simple ignorance.

One way I fight this is to include a Copyright Protection Notice with every print I sell. I do so whether the sale is electronic or a physical print.

Here’s a copy of the notice I use. Use it at your own risk. Always contact an attorney if you need legal advice.

—

Please Read This Important Information About Copyright Protection

Thanks for licensing/purchasing a print of my photograph. I am a professional photographer who earns a living from images like the one that you selected.

Please note that the United States Copyright Act provided photographers statutory protection against Copyright infringement.

The photographer has the exclusive right to reproduce any photo he/she made. This includes the right to control the making of copies for distribution to third parties by any means.

It is a violation of law to copy or reproduce these photographs elsewhere without the written permission of the photographer. People who violate the Copyright Act by making or distributing illegal copies are subject to civil and criminal prosecution.

As your photographer, I will try to accommodate all reasonable requests. Please contact me if you need additional copies of this image or want to expand it’s use, and/or change the licensing agreement.

I would enjoy the opportunity to serve you better. If you have questions about Copyrights and my photos, please contact me directly at your earliest convenience.

Thank you in advance for helping me to protect my rights and my livelihood.

Scott Bourne
Photographer