Mephiloco
Well-known
To my knowledge, the vast majority of modern dslrs do very well with their batteries. Using live view cuts down on it, but that wouldn't be used for news gathering anyways. I have a battery grip for my XTI, and 5 batteries total. 2 batteries in the grip can last me a week vacation easy, or at the very least any single event. Each battery is estimated to give me 400 shots, so thats ~ 800 shots off a single charge.
It's also worth pointing out that news photography isn't about the quality of the image, it's about getting the shot. Also put into perspective that the final format is either going to be a small print photo of not so great res (compared to an actual print) or a small jpeg on a website.
It's also become common for news outlets to actually print 2mp or 1mp photos taken from phones or crappy point and shoots because it's better to have a bad shot than no shot at all.
MatthewThompson
Well-known
I agree that equipment has very little to do with the actual craft and intuition of photojournalism, and we've all had the one-off that's been *the* shot for an event. On the other hand, that ZEN moment happens very rarely. I don't advocate setting your CaNikOlymPax on 100FPS and sitting on the release, but when that decisive moment comes, a spread of 5-8 shots to get the right expression during a speech is indispensable.
Also, I prefer primes at weddings, sports fields and anywhere else I can accurately predict what's going to be taking place in the next two minutes so I can be in the right place. News shooting is not one of those occasions. I hate the big, white zoom as much as the next fella, but it's the best tool for the job at hand, 99 times out of 100.
Again, shooting for the village weekly publication in PoDunk will allow you more in the way of flexibility and "do-overs".
emraphoto
Veteran
indeed. it's about getting the image from the camera (or phone) and into the email or ftp asap. the only way around that is if you have enough contacts and years under your belt that folks are waiting for the work. to get there from step 1 would be an unsavory task these days.
MatthewThompson
Well-known
As I said, horses for courses and the right tool for the job.
emraphoto
Veteran
if you're looking for a camera to hit the scrums, shoot jessica simpson from the sound booth with only three songs to get it right and then head off to a wedding on saturday then yes, i would advocate a dlsr set-up.
if you want to get your name out there in the photojournalist/ngo/stern/podunk weekly world you need to set yourself apart from the "tight and brighters". don't underestimate that. if rangefinders are part of your "groove" then stay committed.
struggling to get the 3 hour block from CP? yeah i was packing a whole bunch of pro looking gear. the minute i gave all that stuff up (which was quite recent) is when the offers really started to come in.
emraphoto
Veteran
keep those rangefinders and spend your dough on a grant writing class. thats my advice
MatthewThompson
Well-known
I agree, and am nodding to myself in my office. If we're ever in the same neighborhood, I'd love to grab a beer and talk shop.
Al Kaplan
Veteran
One thing nobody mentioned is access. If you can't be there you can't get pictures. Get well known in your community, join the Chamber of Commerce, attend city council meetings, go to public events where you'll meet people even if it's not a paid gig. Carry cards with you and carry a camera, but you don't need to shoot with it every time. Get good at "small talk", shmooze with people. Have a website listed on your card. Don't be pushy, don't act hungry. When the occasion seems right wear a suit and tie, good qualty, perfect fit.
emraphoto
Veteran
for sure my friend! any excuse to head the east coast and i am game!
Pickett Wilson
Veteran
News photography is an incredibly difficult way to make a living these days. Not technically, but simply finding a way to make enough to pay the bills. The world has changed. Forever.
But if you want to play the game, all those PJ's standing around you at what ever event you are covering are going to be shooting fast DSLR's with zoom lenses. If you are going to show up with an R-D1 and a 35mm lens, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage. If you must get the shot to pay the bills, it makes no sense to deliberately put yourself at a disadvantage.
If you aspire to be a general assignment news photographer, leave the R-D1 at home.
But if you want to play the game, all those PJ's standing around you at what ever event you are covering are going to be shooting fast DSLR's with zoom lenses. If you are going to show up with an R-D1 and a 35mm lens, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage. If you must get the shot to pay the bills, it makes no sense to deliberately put yourself at a disadvantage.
If you aspire to be a general assignment news photographer, leave the R-D1 at home.
Pablito
coco frío
for editorial work, some clients will object to a 6MP camera like the RD1, they want you to shoot with higher resolution. (6mp more than enough for news)
historicist
Well-known
I read an interview a couple of years ago with a UK photojournast, Dan Chung who works for the Guardian, and he had a RD1 alongside a pair of 5Ds. He gave the impression that the RD1 was only occasionally used though.
kazeonrff
Member
Nobody mentioned the EP-1?
You can switch dslr-type olympus zooms,
and RF primes - depending on what your job is.
You can switch dslr-type olympus zooms,
and RF primes - depending on what your job is.
kbg32
neo-romanticist
Dslr, who has the time to change lenses when it's crunch time? You may miss the shot changing lenses.
DGA
Well-known
Thanks, Al.
Access is my keyword in my approach to what I want to do.
My dream is to be involved with projects (mainly social and environmental),
but I know it cannot stand alone (at least not at the beginning of my career).
Thus - I will have to do something for a living
A photographer friend of mine told me once:
"do the things you are asked for to earn your money and the things you really want on your own.
Only when you have completed a self-created editorial project, try pushing it
forward to magazines. Maybe you'll get lucky"
Thanks, you are absolutely right on this one.
That is a good advice I've already got before and took into practice.
I didn't go to a writing class but I try write my own assays to self-projects I
do (although it mainly goes to my drawer).
I gave people from the journalism field to read some of my work and got
positive feedbacks.
I'll probably keep on doing that writing, no meter what I do in the future,
simply because I like it.
Chris101
summicronia
In a word, no. If you are going to do assignments/projects then your tools need to be reliable and replaceable. The Epson RF is no longer made, and the supply of used ones is becoming thinner with each passing year. What do you do if you are photographing a fast moving story about some major environmental issue. You see Pulitzer written all over it!
Then your camera breaks. It happens - refer to Finagle's Corollary - only when you really need it not to. Do you politely ask all the players (including the methane glacier and sea fire - or whatever future environmental issues we will face) to wait while you scour ebay for a replacement?
This is one of the main reasons that pros who depend on timely access to their camera equipment, stick with major brands. They know the camera will break, and they want to be able to replace/repair it with a minimum of fuss.
Then your camera breaks. It happens - refer to Finagle's Corollary - only when you really need it not to. Do you politely ask all the players (including the methane glacier and sea fire - or whatever future environmental issues we will face) to wait while you scour ebay for a replacement?
This is one of the main reasons that pros who depend on timely access to their camera equipment, stick with major brands. They know the camera will break, and they want to be able to replace/repair it with a minimum of fuss.
Roger Hicks
Veteran
Chris is right, but another point is that professional photography is expensive, regardless of whether you're shooting hard news, features or just about anything else. 'An RD1' (just one out-of-production 6-megapixel camera) won't cut it. By the same token, of course, a brace of top-of-the-line Nikons won't guarantee success.
Of course there's nothing stopping you using film as a back-up, and I'll heartily agree with the others who say that if you feel RFs are a part of your style, and your style is distinctive, and (sooner or later) saleable, it would be foolish to switch to a Nikon or Canon DSLR.
Incidentally, one of my friends is a hard news photographer, and something like 18 out of his 24 press awards (I forget the exact proportion) were won with Leicas. He says that as soon as there's a full-frame M9, he's going to buy it. Yes, it will be expensive. And it will get him the pics he needs. Besides, as he points out, cameras don't cost much next to satellite uplift gear...
Cheers,
R.
Of course there's nothing stopping you using film as a back-up, and I'll heartily agree with the others who say that if you feel RFs are a part of your style, and your style is distinctive, and (sooner or later) saleable, it would be foolish to switch to a Nikon or Canon DSLR.
Incidentally, one of my friends is a hard news photographer, and something like 18 out of his 24 press awards (I forget the exact proportion) were won with Leicas. He says that as soon as there's a full-frame M9, he's going to buy it. Yes, it will be expensive. And it will get him the pics he needs. Besides, as he points out, cameras don't cost much next to satellite uplift gear...
Cheers,
R.
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kkr2k2
Newbie
Do check out the Olympus E-4xx or if you dont mind losing the SLR from the DSLR you can give a thought to the E-P1. With the 14-42 kit lens, it would pass you as a tourist!!!
. For the zoom, you can use the zuiko lenses of the 4/3rds-system with the suitable adapter.
PS: I am not sure of the abilities of the 4/3rds or the micro-4/3rds systems w.r.t. photojournalism.
Pickett Wilson
Veteran
I know we are all really gear oriented around here and biased toward RF's, but it's really pretty simple with this thread. There is a reason all those PJ's standing around at an event are shooting Nikon and Canon DSLR's with big zoom lenses. You can take a look at them, say to yourself "what idiots hauling around all those porky DSLR's and two pound zoom lenses," or you can decide maybe they know something about their day to day work you don't.
If you can find someone to commission you to do month long photo essays anymore, then you can use just about any camera you want. But there aren't many of those commissions left, I'm afraid.
If you can find someone to commission you to do month long photo essays anymore, then you can use just about any camera you want. But there aren't many of those commissions left, I'm afraid.
Roger Hicks
Veteran
Very true. Indeed, there never were that many. But that doesn't mean that everyone has to do the same kind of hard news photography in a ferociously competitive environment. They can try another path. They may or may not succeed. But I'd rather fail at something I wanted to do, than never even try it because everyone else was telling me that there was no point in trying.
Consider also what you mean by 'at an event'. My Leica-loving chum with the press awards is not one of the people you see 'standing around at events' He rather likes Leicas for scene-of-crime shots, and at minor royal events, and all kinds of other stuff.
No-one denies that big, heavy DSLRs are the standard kit, and that they are standard because they make it easiest to get a publishable shot. On the other hand, IF you can build a career on a different (and often equipment-related) look -- and there are surprisingly many who have done exactly that -- then you'd be a fool to try to use generic tools for a specific task that calls for specific tools: in particular, the tools you're happiest with.
No, it's not easy. None of it's easy. Few press photographers achieve fame and fortune; in absolute terms, I suspect, rather fewer than achieve fame, if not fortune, in feature photography. But no-one is obliged to become a news photographer with two DSLRs, any more than anyone is obliged to be a feature photographer with a Leica or a landscape photographer with an 8x10 Gandolfi.
Photography, for many people, is about dreams. Earning a livelihood about photography is about living that dream. It's seldom as romantic as most people imagine: getting up before dawn on a freezing day at 10,000 feet in the Himalayas may be romantic, but it's better in retrospect than at the time. This is all the more true if you have a hangover and are suffering from the effects of dubious Tibetan hygiene in the kitchen of the monastery where you ate the previous night.
There is plenty involved in earning a living from photography that is less than fun. But I'd never discourage anyone from trying it, any more than I'd discourage a girl from trying modelling. I'd just do my best beforehand to make sure they knew as many of the drawbacks and difficulties as they could understand.
Cheers,
R.
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