NYIP, Unit 5 begun

I started on Unit 5 in the NYIP course.  So far, I'm not impressed. 

We started with Photojournalism 1 and 2.  They covered a lot of ground: everything from the local newspaper to the national wire services, sports, features, the picture story.  They had lots of pictures and lots of text.  The narrative text was smaller than normal (compared to their other text booklets), but readable.  However, the text under the pictures was very small and I couldn't read it without a magnifying glass.

This section was a great example of how much our world has changed in the last decade.

1. The booklets both had a copyright date of 1993. 
2. When they said 'digital' they meant scanned images, not photos taken with a digital camera. 
3. They noted that one item every newspaper photojournalist needs is a 2-way radio to keep in contact with the Editor back in the office.
4. There was no mention of on-line news sites.

I know it's hard to keep up with changes in technology, but one has to wonder how out-dated and appropriate their other non-technology information was about jobs and careers in photojournalism.

The unit did include an Update booklet that was more up-to-date, but only included 3 1/2 pages of updates on photojournalism (and this included lots of white space and large section headings.  The audio lesson/conversations were up-to-date and even mentioned the importance of learning video.

I don't think I've mentioned that not all of the text booklets are the same size.  Some are taller than the others  The all fit in the box provided by NYIP, but still ....

National Geographic has an informative and interesting Photography Guide for photojournalists.  It's an easy read as it's target audience is 6th to 8th graders.  (Unfortunately, most of the links are broken.)

NYIP has several good articles on sports photography in their ezine, Photoworld.

In their photography articles on Tuesday Tips, the Chicago Tribune discusses 10 Key Traits of Winning Photojournalists.  To see what a working photojournalist actually does, check out Alex Garcia's blog Assignment Chicago  or Scott Strazzante's Shooting from the Hip.  Not only are the pictures great, but the boys are kinda cute, too.