Cannot miss

October 14, 2009 by pmelcher.

If you have a few precious minute to throw away today , you HAVE to visit http://www.livinggalapagos.org/. A school project from the University of North Carolina, it is an amazing multimedia reminiscent of MediaStorm’s Kingsley’s Crossing by Olivier Jobard.

It is refreshing to see young photojournalist taking the current tools of reporting and putting all together in a refreshing perspective. This is the type of project we would like to see more often. This one deserves to be published on MSNBC.com and other established media outlets.

Posted in mediastorm, technology, multimedia, photojournalism, editorial, msnbc.com, news | Print | No Comments »

The future is promising

September 30, 2009 by pmelcher.

“The eventual goal is to have publishers create hybridized content that draws from audio, video and interactive graphics in books, magazines and newspapers, where paper layouts would be static.”. Gizmodo.

Apparently Apple is working very hard with publishers to digitize their content for their upcoming tablet ( release date : January 2010). But what is extremely interesting here is that, apparently Apple is hard at work redefining what print magazine might soon look like and , by being the first, set a standard.

Already some publishers are playing with Flash or Adobe Air to render a more interactive platform that would mix sounds, music, video and photography, along with text into a full experience media. This portable color tablet, unlike the moribund b & W Amazon Kindle, will offer a reading experience like it has never been seen before. The possibilities are almost limitless and exciting. One will be able to choose for example, based on the time available, how deeply he/she will be involve reading/listening/experiencing a story. Got a few seconds? text only. have a minute? Text , photos, maybe a little sound bite. Have an hour? text, video, interview, video.

Photography will then be redefined by this new medium. Not just as it is taken, but how it is re assembled for the viewers (more multimedia)  as well as how is it licensed.

Microsoft, with its upcoming Courier, is also in the race and quite advanced too.  see video here:

Courier User Interface from Gizmodo on Vimeo.Both solutions will might make it into posterity but will certainly mark the way we will consume photography in the near future. For those who were waiting to know where photogrpahy was going, well, now you have the answer.

Posted in mediastorm, multimedia, license, magazine, technology, Search, newspaper, editorial, slideshow, photojournalism, web 2.0, news | Print | 1 Comment »

Free Stuff

May 5, 2009 by pmelcher.

Recent Webby Award winner MediaStorm is offering a FREE course  on Advanced Multimedia Reporting Workshop to 8 lucky participant. But before your rush to sign up, please be aware that this is not for beginners. You have to already have a solid understanding of multimedia and its tools.

More information here:

” Given the tough economic climate and the critical need for multimedia training, MediaStorm will be holding a one-time, tuition-free Advanced Multimedia Reporting Workshop, in Brooklyn, NY from June 20-26, 2009.

The MediaStorm Advanced Multimedia Workshops are designed for multimedia storytellers who want to get to the next level. It is not an introductory course. Students are responsible for their own travel, room and board. Reporters are expected to have a high level of competency with still photography, and be familiar with audio and video techniques. Editors are expected to be comfortable in Final Cut Pro.

We only have spots for 8 participants as Multimedia Reporters, Editors or Observers so we are expecting a competitive process. Applications are due no later than Friday, May 15, 2009. Participants will be selected based on the content of their applications.

To apply, fill out the application form.”

If this works out for you, I would love to publish the resulting Multimedia here, on this blog.

For those who still don’t know MediaStorm ( who are you ?) or have not yet seen their latest award winning multimedia ( has any company won so many deserved awards ?), here it is :

Posted in mediastorm, magazine, technology, multimedia, photojournalism, editorial, slideshow, news | Print | No Comments »

Size matters

February 2, 2009 by pmelcher.

While we see a proliferation of photography in our everyday lives, much more than we have historically have ever been subjected to, we also see it diminishing in size.

Before the 90’s and the advent of the web browser, our only interaction with still images was mostly in print magazines or huge billboards, along with catalogs, brochures and POP ( point of purchase) displays . Professionals would use a loupe to visualize slides in order to see its details. Some, like Life magazine, would use projectors against a big screen to select the images they would use.

It was a slow process, but however efficient. As our news pics, ads or family pictures migrated from print to digital, their size diminished suddenly. At first, it was web designer who, because  of  the limited bandwidth of our old phone modems (remember those ?), reduced every image to its bear minimum in order to make their site faster to load. The dictatorship of the thumbnail had arrived. Even later, when broadband arrived and became more popular, image size on the internet never really grew. This time, again under the orders of those web designers, it was in order to respect the average screen size of the majority of monitors.

Somehow, somewhat, these rules still remain. From Flickr to Facebook, from Cnn.com to Msnbc.com,  without forgetting the banner ads that populate the borders of our favorite destination, the great majority of images that we see everyday have been reduced to thumbnail size . Not even the size of a 1/4 page in your favorite magazine or a 4 x6 print.

We live in a thumbnail society. The amusing part is most print publication have not really capitalize on this difference, and if anything, have reduced the number of double page spread.  A huge mistake. Just look at the popularity of the Giga Pan of the Obama inauguration or the web site “The big picture“.

Photo agencies, worldwide, have put their catalog of images online and at a  thumbnail resolution , whether it is editorial or commercial stock. lots and lots of small images.Millions actually. To the point that some smart photographers have realized that what they sell is not the image, but the thumbnail of the image. When they shoot and prepare images to be licensed on the commercial stock market, they make sure that the thumbnail is more than perfect. They even push their luck by making sure that it will appear as perfect square, as those will stand out better in the thumbnail space allotted to them. And it works. Most editors, confronted by database holding million plus images, quickly choose from the thumbnail first, going for a larger preview only to confirm their choice. They will handle the full resolution much further down in the process, mostly after they have already licensed the image.

And why shouldn’t they ? The image will probably end up on a website anyway, at a size similar or a bit larger than the thumbnail they actually picked initially.

News photographers do not have this choice, obviously.  They continue to shoot with a full page magazine size in their head. Some still even think about the dying double page spread. None, or very little, have the thumbnail in mind.

Thinking about how your image will be seen as a huge influence on the way a photographer takes an image. No one would be crazy enough to use a large format camera for a website usage ( although I am sure some do anyways) as well as using a point & shoot for a glossy magazine cover.

The funny part is that, with no intended synchronicity, our equipment follows the same trend. All 35 mm photographers judge their work through a LCD panel no bigger than 3 inches wide. Sometimes, the same size as the final usage . The other ironic part, is that our televisions do not seem to stop its growth. Flat panel television seems to have liberate our sets of size constrain and more and more people are watching their favorite shows on displays the size of a wall. Strangely, at least in the US, the  networks seem completely oblivious to this change and keep programming shows that do not take any advantage of this new size (Ah well, maybe in ten years..).

Ansel Adams and many others would have never become famous or succesful in this internet/thumbnail age . Have you ever seen one of his images in the size of a small square? Not impressive. We could go on for ever and ever with example of photographers that just can’t live in a thumbnail size

.

This is an Ansel Adams picture viewed as thumbnail

    So what to do? Not much as of yet. As our TV sets merge with our computers, as our broadband continue to suck gigabits at speed light, our visual real estate/data capacity will continue to grow to a point where we will be able to enjoy National Geographic images the size of our walls with a resolution as close to reality as possible. Everything form Mediastorm’s great multimedia’s to a photo shoot with Angelina Jolie will finally blow up to a realistic size. Oh the possibilities…. However, this doesn’t bode well for the vertically framed  image, but that is another story.

Posted in magazine, celebrity, Cnn, technology, commercial stock, mediastorm, multimedia, editorial, msnbc.com, photojournalism, flickr, news | Print | 1 Comment »

Reminiscence of a dream

September 13, 2008 by pmelcher.

No black and whites, no blurry Holga cameras, no artifacts. Journalism the way it should be. The Rocky Mountain News and its incredible array of talented photographers paired with Brian Storm’s incredible team delivers a very powerful vision of what the DNC meant for Denver, and maybe the rest of the world.

Probably the best spend 20 minutes of your life…Enjoy.

Posted in mediastorm, magazine, technology, multimedia, newspaper, slideshow, photojournalism, editorial | Print | No Comments »

Damn, What is wrong with you people ?

August 8, 2008 by pmelcher.

 There are more and more photo business news websites yet:

- London Features International, a photo agency that has been in business for more than 20 years, crashes and burns and hardly no one even mentions it or comments on it.

- ASMP gets $1,3 million dollars LAST YEAR and only reveals it now (and only because PDN was spilling the beans). They are “not sure” what they will do with it yet. Guess they need more time to think. Is it just me or someone is fooling someone ?

- If I had half of a brain and was somewhat concerned about the Orphan Work legislation, I would look into this Copyright Clearance Center who apparently does collect money for usage. There just might be an interesting answer there, no ?

- Jupiter Images finally reveals its revenues for the last quarter and it is worse than anyone could have ever imagined. They are in negative growth with a stock price close to being under the limit.  The corporations are hurting badly, what does it say about  the rest of the industry ?

-  Microsoft Pro Summit invited spoiled little kid Thomas Hawk ( not his real name) to its Pro Summit. Anyone care to react ? The guy is a neon light loving Flickr happy rich kid with nothing else to do than blog hours on about his iphone and media center and he is considered a pro by Microsoft ? Anyone feel insulted here ? ASMP guys ?

- Its August 8 and the Digital journalist website is still in July ? Does anyone worry or care  anymore ?  ( Ok, they are always late)

- Brian Storm and his team are also moving to Brooklyn . Who in the photography world can still afford Manhattan ? Besides Corbis, obviously. Does anyone know ?

These are all important questions and no one seems to take them seriously. Someone needs to be in charge here. any suggestions ?

Posted in Jupiter, celebrity, magazine, mediastorm, web 2.0, editorial, flickr, corbis | Print | 1 Comment »

another perl

July 29, 2008 by pmelcher.

Genius juxtaposition of images, endearing story, human, lively, photographically compelling, wonderful storytelling, the Mediastorm team does it again .

See it now before someone tells you about it:

 

The only negative is the music that always seem to be the same on all multimedia these days: a  lonely piano with an echo followed by a lonely string acoustic guitar. But who cares ?  When you look at it, it seems that all the pieces were made to fit prior to assembly. It looks so easy to do. And it is not. Makes you wonder how further photography can go beyond the traditional magazine layout. This is also what photo editor should learn to do if they want to keep their job relevant.

Posted in mediastorm, magazine, technology, multimedia, newspaper, editorial, photojournalism, news | Print | No Comments »

“How can you kill something that people will do for free?”

June 19, 2008 by pmelcher.

When Brian Storm speaks, the world of photojournalism learns. The Poynter Institute, a journalistic school, has a 26 minute long interview with the founder of Mediastorm. The interview, being held in front of a boring backdrop by a girl who obviously needs some more courses in broadcast interviews could have used some visual pointers to go along Storm’s amazing insight.

Posted in multimedia, mediastorm, magazine, technology, newspaper, photojournalism, news, editorial, msnbc.com, corbis | Print | No Comments »

If you pay attention ( updated)

June 17, 2008 by pmelcher.

- A useful blog. With some delay but with quite a bang, Photoshelter finally launches a very useful blog for its users and beyond. Full of tips, info, rules and dynamism, it could very well become a very helpful resources for stock photographers who take photography seriously. Does that mean they plan to close the other useless egg hugging blog who rips off hundreds of valuable images for free under the cover of ‘fair use” ? Go ahead, shoot that blog

more on School of Stock here:

- Multimedia continues to rule : Ed Kashi  has launched a wonderful website entirely dedicated to his work on Nigeria delta. Curse of the black gold, offers, among other option, a great multimedia who has all the attributes of a Mediastorm production. A must see, keeping in mind that Kashi was briefly captured and jailed to bring this issue to the world.

Multimedia here:

Update : June 19, 2008 : this article on MSNBC :

Nigerian oil field shut after U.S. worker seized

- Geolocation without GPS: Geolocation is the ability to pinpoint the location, on a map, of where an image was taken. Carnegie Mellon University took millions of  already geographically tagged  images from Flickr as a tool to identify the location of an image, any image. Works a bit like this. You upload an image which compared to millions of Flickr set. By recognizing attributes, it can almost accurately find out, by itself, where the image was taken. Using the same principle, one can easily see how automated keywording could benefit from this crowdsourcing approach. More details here

- Getty’s latest set of numbers: Funny how no one noticed how the Wireimage brand took a huge beating after being purchased by Getty. According to Getty’s published number, Wireimage went from  + $ 3 million a quarter, to a few hundred thousands the next full quarters. What happen ? Did the Wireimage staff just stopped working ? Furthermore, PumpAudio seemed to have also fallen to zero revenue for two quarters after acquisition.

Posted in mediastorm, celebrity, technology, commercial stock, multimedia, Search, slideshow, flickr, web 2.0, keyword, getty | Print | No Comments »

In between the lines

April 7, 2008 by pmelcher.

I will never understand the publishers stubbornness in designing magazine online. They literally replicate their print edition. Not just the content, but the layout. You have a cover/front page. You have sections, you have pages and along all that, a lot and lot of text .

Scrolling, for example, is much easier online. No need to change pages when all you have to do is scroll down. Why fix a limit on how far down you can scroll, when the majority of us have a wheel and can read down for ever?

One reason is that making you change page forces the page to reload, thus displaying new ads. Good for the publisher, not for the reader.

And what is it with this obscene amount of text? Since the launch of Netscape, back in the early 90’s, the web can easily display images, yet all publication use much more text than visuals. Yet the cost is practically the same.

One would have thought that, by now, all the news could have been delivered in a multimedia format. Instead of the linear print magazine format, the web offers video, sound, graphics and of course, photography, to give the readers a more three diminutional vision of a story.

Yet few, if none, use this ability. Its like driving a ferrari at 20 MPH all the time.

Magazine publishers, as we all know, are extremely resistant to change. If anything, they will do more of the same and copy their competition before they will innovate. They mostly believe that their content is so special, it cannot be brought down by the packaging.  They should think again.

With the coming of age of the internet generation, those who grew up in the 90’s and are about to hit college, this will change fast. Right now they are busy absorbing. Absorbing Youtube, Facebook, EW online, myspace. They currently take what is being offered to them. As somewhat passive consumers. But when they hit the work force and take charge, they will certainly create a new medium and certainly affect it deeply.

Online magazine will be more web friendly, mixing text, video, voice over, photography to deliver the story. Navigation will no longer be up and down, left to right.

Interfaces will more like the one use by Brightqube who sadly currently only uses it for delivering  RF images. You will be able to slide your way through a publication that will all reside on one page. Companies like MediaStorm will be able to produce more interactive multimedia, where one would be more involved in its unfolding instead of being a passive listener.  For example, on a report on the Iraq war, one could decide between the short or long version, the unrated or family friendly version, wether to read or listen. And much, much  more.

Magazine sites currently look like scanned magazines. TV sites, look like small tv sets. News site, depending on who produced it, look like their parent. Obviously they want to maintain their brand, and they will. But like microstock to the commercial stock world, they are leaving the door wide open for someone else to steal their readership.

And they will.

Posted in magazine, mediastorm, focus, technology, Piclens, multimedia, Search, msnbc.com, editorial, photojournalism, web 2.0, newspaper, news | Print | No Comments »