Feed aggregator

My first video is finally up on the front page of MSNBC.com. The last of a rhino species on the edge of extinction taken from a zoo in Europe back to Africa. I have a lot to learn! Shooting stills and video is definitely a challenge. thanks! http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/35697851%2335697851#35697851 and some outtakes:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/35766355#35766355

Im heading a new project and am looking for photographers around the globe interested in contributing. I am personally writing to a lot of lightstalkers members but thought I should also post here so you can express interest if you want to be involved. Due to the nature of the project some information is confidential. Please bear with me as you will be asked to sign a confidentiality agreement before I can supply a lot of details. What I can say is; Lattitude is a monthly portrait and documentary magazine that presents the work of 60 photographers each month. The magazine is being produced by a company I have just started called "The Collective" - a publishing house that is passionate about the value of creative talent and strives to maintain honour and artistic integrity through it's relationships and output. This is not a work for exposure offer. We intend to financially reward contributors. Thanks, latitude@thecollectivepublishinghouse.com Please email rather than pm! and be sure to include your current location please. (edit: removed the random .e and added the request for email only enquiries ) (edit 2: asked for location information to be included in email) (edit 3: changed the email address)

The Children’s School of Science is seeking talented and motivated teachers for its summer 2010 session for Entomology, Parasitology, Robotics & ROVs, and Black & White Photography. Three and six week courses meet Monday to Friday for ninety minutes. Guided by Louis Agassiz's motto, “Study Nature, not Books,” courses emphasize observation, inquiry and hands-on work in the field, at local laboratories and in the classroom. Applicants to CSS normally have a minimum of a Bachelor of Science or Arts in a scientific specialty; however, the school considers applicants with alternative qualifications. Skills necessary: teaching experience required, with children recommended; and a demonstrated ability in field of expertise. Information on the school and its programs can be found at: http://www.childrensschoolofscience.org/ Please send application, cover letter and three references to: Karen Schwalbe 237 Hatchville Road East Falmouth, MA 02536-4051 Or e-mail: kschwalbe@whrc.org

By Ctein A few weeks back, a reader wrote to Mike comparing the sharpness of prints made with his 6-MP and 12-MP digital cameras. He put in some effort to compare apples and apples. Both cameras had the same format,... Michael Johnston

The White House News Photographers Association 2010 Student Photographer of the Year The White House News Photographers Association (WHNPA) is proud to announce our annual contest is open to students from across the world to compete for the honor of WHNPA Student Photographer of the Year. The contest will accept entries until 11:59 p.m. EST on March 17, 2010. Download a PDF of complete contest rules and guidelines here: http://www.whnpa.org/studentcontest Links and contact information for all information and questions are listed on this url. This is a great opportunity. Please forward and spread this information to as many people as possible.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article7050481.ece

I´m going to Erbil(Arbil, Irak) in April, does anyone has experience there? Does anyone knows how dangerous it is?

Where: Vermont, USA Deadline: April 1st, 2010 Vermont Studio Center is proud to announce the Rubin Fellowships for Himalayan Artists, sponsored by the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation. Modeled after VSC’s prestigious Freeman Fellowship for Asian Artists, outstanding mid-career visual artists from the Himalayas will be selected for 2-month residencies by an independent jury. Two artists plus two alternates will be chosen who are engaging in or responding to traditional Himalayan art forms. Applicants should be from one of the following countries: Bhutan, Mongolia, Nepal, Tibetan Ethnic (TAR/China), or a Tibetan Member of the Diaspora. All fellowship winners receive a 2-month VSC grant, private studio space, housing/food, round-trip air travel, art materials allowance, shipping allowance, stipend and an optional trip to New York City. The Vermont Studio Center is a year-round creative community offering 2–12 week residencies to 50 painters, sculptors, and writers each month from across the United States and around the world. Residents receive individual studios, private rooms and all meals, plus access to prominent visiting artists and writers offering slide talks, readings and studio visits. Located in rural northern Vermont, VSC offers the seclusion of uninterrupted working time and the companionship of professional peers. Please visit www.vermontstudiocenter.org for a complete description of the Studio Center and rural Johnson, Vermont. Applications must be received by April 1, 2010. To download an application, please visit our website: www.vermontstudiocenter.org/rubin-himalayan-fellowships

Hello! Does anyone know a good fixer, preferably a woman but not critical, in Freetown? Its for a story on maternal health so any connections to the hospitals and Maternity wards would be great. Please email me at ami at amivitale dot com. Thanks so much! Ami

A week and a day ago now, we published Jim Hughes' article "Fugitive Color," a meditation around Kodachrome. In the article, Jim talked about Harald Mante's new book from Rocky Nook, Photography Unplugged , which was published last September. Here's... Michael Johnston

I'm very pleased to announce that, this coming Saturday, TOP will present another new portfolio by our friend the photojournalist Peter Turnley. The subject is an extensive body of work from Rio's Carnaval. Like Peter's last portfolio on TOP, this... Michael Johnston

© Jaroslav Kocian

The Twentieth Year of the Institute of Creative Photography, Silesian University in Opava

Opening in Theatre Reduta, Zeleny trh 4, Brno

Wednesday 31.3.2010 at 5:00pm

Exhibiton will be open every day from 10am to 6 pm till 2.5.2010

Introducing leader ITF prof. Vladimir Birgus

http://www.pbs.org/idealab/2010/02/faint-praise-for-citizen-journalism-misses-point055.html ""(Darnton) does take umbrage, though, against the term 'citizen journalist.' 'If you're walking down the street and somebody collapses in front of you and somebody else runs over and administers CPR because they happen to know it, and saves the victim, you wouldn't go home and say you saw somebody saved by a citizen doctor. You'd say you saw someone saved by a bystander who happened to know CPR. Right? 'Same thing here. I like to call them bystanders -- not journalists. Just good bystanders.'" I've long since stopped taking umbrage when people don't get it. But to hear stuff like this from someone with Darnton's track record is dismaying. He clearly does not understand -- or if he does, he deeply regrets -- that journalism is no longer the province of the people like himself, who rose on well-defined career tracks through a business that was comprised mostly of big monopoly organizations or a few members of an oligopoly -- businesses that achieved their economic power due to conditions that no longer apply. He does not get that journalism is an ecosystem, and that it is becoming more diverse over time."

See http://mobileactive.org/mobilesecurity-citizenjournalism 03.01.10 Author | melissaloudon Citizen journalism, and with it the rise of alternative media voices, is one of the most exciting possibilities for mobile phones in activism. Mobile phones are used to compose stories, capture multi-media evidence and disseminate content to local and international audiences. This can be accomplished extremely quickly, making mobile media tools attractive to citizens and journalists covering rapidly unfolding events such as protests or political or other crises. The rise of mobiles has also helped extend citizen journalism into transient, poor or otherwise disconnected communities. However, for those working under repressive regimes, citizen journalism can be a double-edged sword. Anything you create and disseminate can be used against you, whether through the legal system or in other more sinister forms of suppression. Bloggers and online activists have various tools at their disposal to provide anonymous browsing, encryption, and privacy protection when working from a PC. For mobiles, the options are far fewer. Currently, anonymous browsing (through Tor) requires an Android phone, but encrypted content uploads over https are possible with many of the newer feature phones. At the same time, we know that security depends as much on setting (and sticking to) good protocols as on the communication tools you use. You can minimise risk by using a phone that cannot immediately be traced to you, or by capturing notes, images and video on a phone but uploading from a securely-configured PC. Mobile Technologies and Threats (Or: Knowing Your Enemy) In our Mobile Surveillance Primer, we discussed the security and privacy threats inherent in mobile communications, and offered some suggestions on how to avoid surveillance. Here's a quick recap. We encourage you to read the entire article, however! * SMS and MMS (multi-media messages/pictures and are transmitted unencrypted across the GSM network. Anyone with access to the network (a hacker with some fairly inexpensive encryption cracking technology, the mobile network operator itself, or anyone who is able to co-opt them) can see the content of your message as well as a slew of identifying information: unique numbers identifying the phone and SIM card, the time of the message and approximate location of the sender, and the phone number of the recipient. * Voice calls are similarly vulnerable, with the added danger of identifying you by your voice (if recorded). You could also be overheard by someone in close physical proximity. * Mobile Internet connections reveal all the identifying information of the phone, as well as the address of the site being visited. Unless you are using an encrypted (https) connection, all your data is also transmitted in plain text. This leaves you vulnerable not only to hackers on the GSM network and network operators, but also to anyone who is able to watch your traffic on the Internet. * In general, third party applications have access to all of the above as well. They may also contain malicious code that can access and transmit data from your phone without your knowledge. Avoid installing third party apps on a phone you want to use securely. * Once you upload data to a website, you are bound by the terms of service of that site. The site owners may hand over any identifying information (such as your IP address) they have about you, or be compelled to do so. This doesn't sound very promising - it's not. There are very few tools available for secure mobile communications, and none that are ideal in their current state. However, there are some options for users of feature phones, and more for smartphones. When combined with a careful strategy, apps for encrypted communication and anonymous browsing can improve the security of your mobile journalism work. Doing Secure Internet Research: Anonymous Browsing on Android with Tor If you're looking to invest in secure mobile communication, Android phones are a good bet. Smartphone platforms in general are better able to perform the 'heavy lifting' required for secure communication. Android itself is largely open source, making it harder to hide malicious code. The rise of the widely-supported open source smartphone platform also opens the way for the development of an Android version with security built in at operating system level - the goal of the ongoing Guardian Project. Right now, there are many applications in development, but few with viable releases for immediate use. TorProxy, an Android application that provides anonymous routing of Internet traffic through the Tor network, comes closest. After installing TorProxy and Shadow, an anonymous web browser, it is possible to browse without revealing the source or destination of your Internet traffic. Tor also provides encryption for all but the final communication stage between the last Tor server in the chain (the Tor 'exit node') and the destination. The major weakness of the TorProxy/Shadow approach is that, because of a bug in the Android platform, it is not currently possible to use Shadow to communicate over https. Https is the encrypted version of the hypertext transfer protocol (http) used to browse the web. Sites that require the user to log in before they can add content - web email services, twitter, photo sharing sites such as flickr, major blogging platforms - often use https for authentication, and cannot be accessed without it. Without https, the Tor exit node can also access the unencrypted contents of your communication. If the exit node is malicious, this can be a critical security risk. The TorProxy/Shadow is good for maintaining anonymity while researching or reading online, but unless the https bug is fixed, critically restricted when it comes to disseminating content. In our tests, it was also extremely slow on unreliable mobile networks (3G was usable, but EDGE/GPRS was not). Even when used for browsing, Tor can be vulnerable in certain situations. For example, Flash video (such as YouTube) is blocked by default because it could compromise your privacy. You are strongly advised to read more about how Tor works to understand when you are and are not protected. It's also worth noting that there is some concern about the security of the original Java library (OnionCoffee) from which TorProxy was developed. We're hoping to see improvements and other implementations in the coming months. If you're interested in a more robust implementation of Tor for Android, you should follow developments on Orbot, which is part of the Android Guardian project. In short.. * TorProxy and Shadow provide a version of Tor for Android phones * Good for: research and browsing - Tor provides anonymous browsing * Major weakness: Shadow does not currently support https. Sites that require you to log in won't work, and Tor exit nodes can see your traffic. * Orbot is another implementation of Tor for Android. It looks promising, but is currently still under development. How to do it * Download TorProxy and Shadow from the Android marketplace, and configure following these instructions. There's also an illustrated setup guide. Resources * How Tor works: technical overview or layman's guide * What Tor does and does not do * OrBot, a possible future alternative to TorProxy, is currently in development as part of the Guardian project. Keep an eye out for updates! Secure Content Uploading: Browsing and Email with https Even if you aren't able to use Tor to browse anonymously, browsing with https - the encrypted version of http, the protocol used to access websites - can still protect the content you upload. Although https versions of sites such as gmail (https://www.gmail.com) and twitter (https://www.twitter.com) do not protect you from having the source, destination, size and time of your upload recorded, the content itself is encrypted while in transit. Most smartphone browsers support https, so if you have a smartphone, you should be able to access https sites out of the box. You could also try Opera Mobile (not Mini), a secure alternative to the default browser available for Nokia and Windows Mobile smartphones. It's also possible to use Opera Mini to access sites over https from many other phones. There are two caveats here, both related to the browser's use of an intermediary server to optimize sites for display on mobile devices. * If you have a very old phone and are using Opera Mini Basic, your connection between the phone and Opera Mini's optimization server is not encrypted at all, and should not be considered secure. * Most people should be using Opera Mini Advanced, which encrypts both the connection between you phone and the optimization server and the onward connection to the destination site. * However, both versions allow the optimization server to access the data unencrypted. If an adversary were to gain control of the Opera Mini optimization server, they would be able to observe your communication. Again, this isn't a perfect solution. For content uploading, https has two major problems: * Not many mobile sites are fully https-enabled. Mobile sites like m.wordpress.com are only https-enabled during log-in. This means that your username and password are not revealed to the network. However, after the log-in page, the site switches back to using regular http, which means that all the content you are uploading are available to the network. https://m.twitter.com is one of the only content uploading sites that has site-wide support for https on the mobile web. * While browsing https sites, the network can still see the source, destination, size, and times of your uploads. Looking at upload sizes and times of content on the websites themselves, adversaries may be able to link you to the content you upload. And since they know the source of the upload, they will be able to figure out which SIM and phone you used to upload the content, as well as the location of that SIM and phone on the network. To avoid these issues, we suggest the following tactics: * If you find https-enabled sites for uploading content, make sure to change the publicly viewable upload time of content you upload. While this may not help you if the uploading site's server logs are compromised, there will be less publicly available information linking you and your phone to the content you uploaded. You should also consider using only sites that are commonly used in your location, so that you aren't the only person accessing the site at a particular time. * Use https-enabled email as an intermediate step rather than uploading your content directly from you phone. If you are able to connect with a trusted contact who can access the Internet anonymously from a PC running Tor, emailing your content to this person to upload will make it harder to trace its origin. Alternatively, many sites allow you to upload content to an existing account (which you need to have created previously, ideally from a PC running Tor or an anonymous proxy) via email. Wordpress.com offers email upload functionality, as do YouTube and flickr. Both gmail and hushmail offer https webmail, although gmail does not encrypt messages stored on its servers. An attacker who is able to breach gmail's security could view your messages. Hushmail stores messages in encrypted form, but is still vulnerable to attackers who are able to guess a user's passphrase. They also warn that they will co-operate with subpoenas issued by Canadian courts. Because of the way hushmail works (the recipient must visit the hushmail site to decrypt a message), it is not suited for email uploads. In the free version, total storage is also limited to 2MB, so you'll need to reduce the size of image, video and sound files before uploading if you want to use the service with large attachments. Gmail's message storage is much more generous. In short.. * Browsing over https encrypts the content of your communication, but not the source or destination. * Most smartphone browsers support end-to-end encryption over https, as does Opera Mobile. * Opera Mini basic isn't secure. Opera Mini Advanced encrypts your content everywhere except the Opera Mini optimization servers * Many content uploading platforms allow you to submit content using an email submission address. Consider sending email to such as address (or a trusted human being) using https-enabled webmail. How to do it * Download Opera Mobile here or by browsing to m.opera.com/mobile on the phone * Download Opera Mini for your phone model here or by browsing to m.opera.com on the phone. If you're not sure which version you're using (basic or advanced) you can check by looking at the startup screen: when you launch the advanced version, you'll see the opera mini logo, while the basic version shows only text. Resources * A review of the security features of popular webmail services, from lifehacker. Only gmail and hushmail are reasonable options. * A Guide to Anonymous Blogging using Tor, by Ethan Zuckerman at Global Voices. Although the first part of the article is about how to install Tor on a Windows PC, it's worth reading for tips on accessing Wordpress.com anonymously. If you're planning to ask a trusted contact to upload content on your behalf, they should definitely be using Tor! * Bruce Schreiner's security analysis of encrypted webmail services Co-ordinating and Uploading without Security: Anonymous 'Throwaway' Phones Even if your phone isn't capable of running special software to allow you to browse and upload content, you can still take practical steps to improve your security. Purchasing an anonymous phone - one which cannot immediately be traced to you - and a prepaid SIM card is a good way to prepare for situations where the timing and content of your message is important enough that you are willing to discard the phone after use. An anonymous phone can be used to capture and disseminate information via the mobile web, SMS, or MMS, or to increase mainstream media coverage of an event by tipping off sympathetic journalists. MobileActive's Surveillance primer has some general information about how to avoid surveillance, and this guide from FreeB.E.A.G.L.E.S deals with buying and maintaining an anonymous phone. As more and more countries require SIM registrations, however, buying a SIM anonymously is becoming harder to do. It bears repeating that SMS and MMS are transmitted completely unencrypted, and that the network operators of the sender and recipient have access not only to the identitifying number of the phones and SIMs involved, but also to a reasonably accurate location estimate. If you suspect that an adversary is co-operating with the network operator, you should be extremely careful using these services at all. In short.. * Sometimes, you message might be so important that you're willing to send it unencrypted * Try these tips to buy and use a phone anonymously * Never re-use a phone or a SIM that could have been linked to suspicious activity Categories * activism * advocacy * citizen media * Citizen Media * Citizen Media * encryption * Freedom of Expression and Press * Human Rights Abuses, Torture * Human Rights Monitoring * media * mobile media * Political Parties, Politics * Remote Data Collection and Monitoring * security * sms * tor A Guide to Mobile Security for Citizen Journalists data sheet 2011 Views Author: Melissa Loudon Abstract: Citizen journalism, and with it the rise of alternative media voices, is one of the most exciting possibilities for mobile phones in activism. Mobile phones are used to compose stories, capture multi-media evidence and disseminate content to local and international audiences. This can be accomplished extremely quickly, making mobile media tools attractive to citizens and journalists covering rapidly unfolding events such as protests or political or other crises. The rise of mobiles has also helped extend citizen journalism into transient, poor or otherwise disconnected communities. However, for those working under repressive regimes, citizen journalism can be a double-edged sword. Anything you create and disseminate can be used against you, whether through the legal system or in other more sinister forms of suppression. This guide for Mobile Security gives an overview and provides recommendations for secure browsing, secure content uploading, and using "throw-away phones" for organizing and communications. We note that secure solutions for mobile communications are currently lacking, however! Global Regions: Asia, Australia and Oceania, Central America and the Caribbean, Europe, Middle East and North Africa, North America, South America, Sub-Saharan Africa Post new comment

One of the most famous of vaporware products is vaporware no more. Originally announced in 2005, then again in 2007—failing to materialize on both occasions—the Pentax 645D is about to become a reality in Japan. - Sample image by Tanji... Michael Johnston

Hi, i've been out of touch and am coming to the zoriah debate late in the game. i simply want to say that i know the guy well. in my experience he's a committed photojournalist and as non-commercial as they come. i can tell you for certain he's tackled tough issues over the years, traveled on a shoestring and slept on the ground as much as anyone out there--all in an effort to get the story out. long after many big-name photogs had given up on iraq, he continued to come and he was essentially barred by the US Mil from working in iraq after publishing hard-hitting photos of US war dead. that being said, he was obviously tone-deaf in not thinking through the appearance of a workshop based on the suffering of haitians. i think the problem is the appearance of profiteering, which knowing him, was not his goal. mike kamber

We live in a photographic world that demands immediate results, especially for photojournalism/documentary photography which makes digital cameras more effective for these genres of photography due to their ability to transmit images almost immediately. I hope to one day become a photojournalist/documentary photographer, but I only use film and analogue cameras. This is not a film vs. digital debate concerning which is better, but rather a question concerning speed and practicality. Thank you, Jamusu.

This SlideShowPro photo gallery requires the Flash Player plugin and a web browser with JavaScript enabled.

var flashvars = { paramXMLPath: "http://www.100eyes.org/wp-content/plugins/slidepress/tools/param.php?gid=plotnikova", initialURL: escape(document.location) } var params = { base: ".", quality: "best", bgcolor: "#121212", wmode: "transparent", allowfullscreen: "true" } var attributes = {} swfobject.embedSWF("http://www.100eyes.org/wp-content/uploads/slidepress/flash/slideshowpro.swf", "ssp_g_plotnikova", "850", "690", "9.0.0", false, flashvars, params, attributes);
“The Bathers” Photographs by Tatiana Plotnikova

 

Balbuki is a very ordinary village in Pskov Region, one of many small regions in western part of Russia. The local farmers who have lived and worked this land are being gradually being replaced with summer residents from nearest towns, and a lot of customary traditons are disappearing as well. This style of steam bath called Banya is one of the traditions that are being lost to gentrification. Read More/Comment

 

About Tatiana Plotnikova: Born in Leningrad, Russia. Active as a photographer since 2008.
Graduated from the St.Petersburg Economical University with a degree in Accounting and Audit, and the St.Petersburg Politechnical University with a degree in Graphic design.
In 2006-2008 studied at the St.Petersburg Photojournalism Faculty in Sergey Maximishin group.
At present – Tatiana is an independent photographer focusing her attention on a social photography.
You can reach her by email at: plotnikovoy@yandex.ru

 

I was originally going to include in the previous post a few paragraphs about Studebaker, a maker of carriages and wagons founded in the 1850s that eventually made a successful transition to making automobiles (the company lasted more than a... Michael Johnston

I was originally going to include in the previous post a few paragraphs about Studebaker, a maker of carriages and wagons founded in the 1850s that eventually made a successful transition to making automobiles (the company lasted more than a... Michael Johnston