DC Trip: Day 5

Today was our last day in the city. We spent the morning going to the White House photo department and then to Reuters.

At Reuters we met with Larry Downing and Jason Reed. The two of them have been working together on multimedia pieces for the past couple of years. They talked to us about these projects and how helpful it is to be working with another person. By working together, Jason and Larry are able to do much more than they would do by themselves. In working together, however, they explained that the photographers ego has to go. For them it's "our work" never "my work." If someone asks who took a specific photo, a video clip, or audio clip used in their pieces most of the time the answer is "I don't know" because they work so much as a team that the individual makers of each segment doesn't matter. After showing us their work and explaining how they do it, Larry and Jason told us that in order to be successful and keep yourself relevant in the industry you have to be flexible. You have to be able to learn multimedia and writing and any other direction that the industry might go in in the future.

Unfortunately today marked the end of an amazing week. The biggest takeaways from the week are to always be networking and staying in touch with the people you meet, get better at writing, and always be shooting. Now time to catch a train back to Philly for the weekend.

DC Trip: Day 4

Today we went to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the McClatchy Tribune, National Geographic, and ended the day with an alumni party. 

At the Corcoran we saw their current exhibit on War Photography. The exhibit was great. The photographs were broken down into small sections, such as civilians in wartime, so that the exhibit was more than just hundreds of the most iconic war photographs ever made. The exhibit had pretty much every iconic war photograph ever made, be it Eddie Adam's execution of a vietcong or photos from Tim Hetherington's Restrepo. This exhibit is well worth a trip to see it.

Next we went to McClatchy Tribune. McClatchy is the second largest wire service in the US. It is made up of a network of about 55 different newspapers around the country that help to fund it. At McClatchy we met with senior photo editor, Linda Epstein. After explaining McClatchy to us, Linda gave us some pointers for our future. Just like everyone else we have talked to, Linda stressed the need to network and really keep in touch with the people that you have met. Another tip that she gave us was to always be looking at other peoples work. Draw inspiration from it and see what they're doing and how they're doing it. To really keep up with photography you have to be looking at what everyone around you is doing and be able to do that and more. 

After McClatchy we went over to National Geographic. At National Geographic we met with director of photography Sarah Leen, photo editor Bill Douthitt, and deputy director of photography Ken Geiger. The three of them started by telling us about where they see the National Geographic going. They explained that it is no longer just a magazine, but now it is a blog, a website, multimedia work, the magazine still, etc. After discussing the changing nature of the current industry, Ken and Bill discussed the importance of photo stories. Photo stories are how photographers change the world. They then went into discussing how important the research aspect of a story is. The stories that National Geographic tells require months to years of research before they can be photographed. The photographer needs to know every possible aspect of the story so that they can successfully pitch the story and then follow that up with some stellar photographs. Without solid research, a story will never be successfully told. 

After National Geographic we went to an alumni party and met with tons of alumni and friends of the program. Many of the people we have met throughout the week were at the party along with a ton of other photographers, editors, and other people in the industry. The party was an opportunity to talk with all of the knowledgeable people there in a less formal setting, ask plenty more questions, have work looked at, and most importantly practice the main theme of the week, networking. 

After another successful day the themes remain the same, network, write good captions, and always be working on a story. 

DC Trip: Day 3

Today was one of our longest days of the trip. During this long day we went to USA Today out in McLean, Virginia then back to DC for AARP then to the Associated Press then to a panel of photographers from different publications and freelancing.

We started at USA Today where we were scheduled to meet with Andrew Scott, the Deputy Director of Multimedia for the paper. When we got there we were greeted by not just Andrew, but a large group of employees including staff photographers Darr Beiser and Jack Gruber and photo editor Jym Wilson. The group gave us a bunch of advice mostly focused on story telling. One main theme that they all suggested was that we learn to write. By learning to write a story, we will understand what we need to shoot to tell the story visually. Another major theme was to make sure you are self assigning projects. Do personal work that will make you happy, but will also help you grow as a photographer and build a better portfolio.

Next we went over to AARP to meet with Photo Editors Michael Wichita and Lindsey Leger. Michael started off by explaining how the photo department at AARP worked. He runs the two publications, the bulletin and the magazine, with almost entirely freelance work. Michael finds freelancers by figuring out what story he is working on, then looks for a photographer that is working on a story similar or has interests in the topic that he is publishing. He then uses his funds to hire them as a freelancer to try and help fund their work on the project. Michael also explained AARP's new uses of social media. He recently has started using Instagram to publish photo stories.

After AARP we went over to the Associated Press to meet with assistant chief of the bureau of photos, David Ake, and staff photographers Evan Vucci and Jacquelyn Martin. David gave us a list of things that are vital to becoming a successful photographer. The first thing on the list was longevity. He estimated that it takes at least five years to make it as a photographer and many photographers won't stick around that long. The next thing was don't be a jerk. The photography industry is incredibly small so if you are a jerk people will hear about it and no one wants to work with a jerk. The next tip was to keep in touch. Make contacts and keep in touch with them. One email a month to people is enough to keep them in the loop and remind them that you are around, so they will keep you in mind for possible work recommendations. Lastly, he told us to always have our gear on us. Always have it with you so that you can always be shooting and really perfecting the technical aspects of photography so that you don't have to worry about them in the long run. Evan and Jacquelyn then gave us some tips. They stressed how important doing personal work was to not only improve your craft but really to keep you sane and interested in photography at times when work seems to be getting monotonous.

After AP we met with a number of different photographers from different backgrounds. First Jim Lo Scalzo of the European Photo Agency spoke. Jim's biggest point was to always be working on stories and pitching stories to editors. Stories are the most important thing in your career. Not only are stories what you will look back on and be proud of, but being a good story teller will help to get photography and visual story telling to be more respected by other members in the news industry. After Jim spoke, Mary Calvert, a freelancer out of DC, took the floor to speak to us. Mary told us how she comes up with ideas for stories, something that many of us, especially me, struggle with. She said that reading the newspaper should spark a dozen ideas just in the first section. Another place that she suggested for story inspiration was listening to NPR. Any source of news reporting should help to bring up a large number of ideas for stories. After Mary, Jahi Chikwendiu, staff photographer at the Washington Post, spoke. Jahi showed us his award winning portfolio and described his career path. He told us that no matter what we do, make sure to put 100 percent passion into it. Without putting all of your heart into what you do, you will not live up to your potential. After Jahi, Lucian Perkins, a freelancer in the Wahington DC area, spoke. He showed us the project he is working on about Joseph's House, a house that is a sort of hospice for people with HIV. Lucian talked about how he shot everything from the story, 7 terabytes of video, without watching it. He said that now that he is going through he's realizing how much more he would have learned and improved had he watched it sooner so that he wasn't making the same mistakes the whole time. After Lucian, Spencer Millsap, a National Geographic multimedia editor, spoke to us. Spencer described how the internet and tablets are changing how Nat Geo is setting up their website. They are trying to make it much more interactive with a lot more multimedia. Spencer also showed a some of his work and what it's like to work at Nat Geo with some of the biggest names in the industry.

Overall the main takeaways from today are that personal work is the most important thing a photographer can do, and like the previous two days, always be networking.

DC Trip: Day 2

Today we spent the day going to the United States Peace Institute, NPR, and then meeting with Michael Temchine, DC located freelancer. 

We started at the United States Peace institute where we met with photo archivist, Carol McKay, Digital Media Assistant, Steven Ruder, and Staff Photographer Bill Fitzpatrick. The Peace Institute works around the world trying to run conflict resolution programs in conflict areas. The Institute is currently trying to create an archive of all of their photographs since their creation in the 80s. This being done by Carol who is scanning all of the old negatives and prints to create a comprehensive visual history of the Peace Institute. Along with explaining her role at the Institute, Carol also described her long and successful career path that took her through newspapers, magazines, and several other jobs in the industry. After Carol, Steven gave us some tips at making ourselves more marketable in the current economy. He told us that being a jack of all trades is almost a must in the journalism industry these days. The more skills you have the easier it will be for you to find a job. Bill then gave us a some words of wisdom, mostly to make sure to wait for the perfect moment. He explained that your average get the picture and leave mentality won't work. You will need to be patient and wait for the perfect moment to get the best shots. 

After the Peace Institute we went over to NPR to meet with Picture and Multimedia editor Coburn Dukehart. NPR is known mainly for their radio, as they should be, but Coburn was given the job there six years ago to give NPR a visual presence. In that time Coburn has done a great job of putting together a team that can visually construct stories just as well as their radio counterparts. After a brief description of NPR and what she has done since being there Coburn discussed with us all of NPR's different internships, staff positions, and freelance work. The company has a number of internships. NPR frequently hire their interns if a job is available, and if not will often look to former interns for freelance work as much as they can. NPR tries to create a real community among their employees. Because of this they like to keep in touch with former NPR employees and interns and help them with their careers either at NPR or elsewhere. After talking with Coburn we went on a tour of NPR viewing two of their studios, their news floor, and several other places around the building. We then got to go see a Tiny Desk Concert featuring Dessa. After the concert we talked with multimedia producer, Kainaz Anaria. Kainaz discussed her experience with the Planet Money t-shirt campaign that she traveled across the globe to produce. She also gave us a few career pointers. Her biggest suggestion was to really develop your visual literacy so that you can talk about your work intelligently.

After NPR we went to lunch with freelancer Michael Temchine. Michael described his career as a freelancer. He explained that you can't ever put yourself above shooting something, such as weddings, because it is always a source of income and a chance to improve your craft. Michael also explained the pressure of freelancing, or working in any journalism career, due to the fact that you have to get it right on the first try cause there might not be a second. He also explained the importance of juggling your personal life and your professional life. He explained that you have to weigh the importance of an event, he used a first date as an example, compared to the importance of the job that you are offered that would force you to cancel your date. 

At the end of the day it was another good one with lots of good information. The common themes for the first two days so far have been to network all the time and write good captions. 

DC Trip: Day 1

This week my classmates and I are in Washington DC to meet and talk to a number of editors, photographers, and other members of the industry. Due to technical difficulties recently I'll have to delay photos from the trip until I have fixed my computer, but until then I will be posting about our daily meetings. We started today by going to Bloomberg and meeting with their photo editor, Andrew Harrer. After meeting with Andrew, we went to US News and World Report to meet with Director of Photography, Avi Gupta.

We started the morning at Bloomberg where we met in the training room. Bloomberg is a company that covers business, economic, and political news. The headquarters is in NYC with a branch also in DC. In DC we met with Andrew Harrer who acts as photo editor and photographer in the DC branch. Andrew discussed with us how Bloomberg's photo department works, hiring mostly freelancers with a staff of just four photographers located in various cities around the world. Andrew went on to discuss how Bloomberg is starting to work with more and more video. He explained his role in the video, taking 10 to 15 second clips and captioning them all before giving them off to a video editor who will edit them and put them up on the wire. As the meeting came to a close Andrew gave us some tips that will be useful as we enter the field of photography. He told us to make sure to be very good at captioning, always keep networking, and have a diverse base of knowledge so that you have some background on the subjects that you will end up covering.

After Bloomberg we went over to US News and World Report where we met with the director of photography, Avi Gupta. US News and World Report is a company that puts out an online weekly publication, several specialty publications throughout the year (for example they did a publication on the civil war this past year), and some consumer reports rating the best colleges and hospitals in the country. Avi discussed how the photo department there worked. Like Bloomberg, US News and World Report also depended heavily on freelance photographers. Their consumer report publications this past year were roughly 95 percent original photography. All of this was shot with one staff photographer and a lot of freelancers. Avi then explained what a basic contract for a freelance photographer would include, the important features being copyright,  reuse, embargos, and finances. He then showed us the editing room, where all of the editors pin up print outs of each page to the wall to mess around with different layouts and see how it looks. While their Avi introduced us to the one US News and World Report staff photographer/photo editor, Brett Ziegler. Brett gave us some words of wisdom, mostly involving personal work and the need to continue producing it all the time.

Overall the day was a good one with lots of wisdom from several great minds in the business.