Chuckle. According to CareerCast.com a newspaper reporter is the worst job to have in 2013. It inhabits the basement of a list of 200. Newspaper photographers (AHEM, photo-journalist) live 12 floors closer to the penthouse in the 188 spot in the wobbly world of journalism . That means we get [...]
There are days in the news business that for whatever the reason, stories don't pan out. This usually happens at about four in the afternoon. Inevitably one of us will be dispatched to get a feature photo, commonly called a slice of life or enterprise photo. Whatever it's named, the [...]
Okay, so you've all been scanning the western horizon at dusk looking for the most recent celestial wunderkind. Having a difficult time finding comet Pan-STARRS? Join the club. My over 50 eyes had a difficult time finding the blur in space. That's why camera companies invented long lenses, to give [...]
All day I've faced the barren waste With out the taste of water... cool, water. Ole Dan and I, with throats burned dry, and souls that cry for water... cool, clear water. Vaughn Monroe/ Sons of the Pioneers - COOL WATER (1948) RCA Victor Records It was bound to [...]
The last post here was in black and white. Today it will be in vivid color. Outtakes from my trip to New Orleans to cover the Super Bowl. Because Fat Tuesday is this week, I'll start it off with a Mardi Gras float. [...]
After five days of continuous Super Bowl coverage, I wanted to get away from the hype of the French Quarter, television cameras, large crowds and commercialism that surrounds an event like the Super Bowl. I'm sure the festivities were good for the city and brought in a much needed boost [...]
So that's that. Two weeks of hype bottled in to one four hour football game. Interesting to be sure, it was mayhem in the second half, Beyonce performing, a power outage, and a furious Forty Niner comeback. Super Bowls are almost always surreal and Sunday night was a special edition [...]
Fans at the Superbowl before the game..... -Kent Porter
Left for the Super Dome at 12:30pm in a caravan of media bus charters. Took 15 minutes because of road closures and the like. Get out, walk a couple of football field distances to the security line. Drop bags at security in groups, bomb sniffing dog goes to work sniffing [...]
Twenty three years ago, the Forty Niners played the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXIV, trounced them really, here in New Orleans. The Crescent City put out a tremendous welcome mat, much like they do for visitors during Mardi Gras. I was all of 27 years-old and my first trip [...]
How many frames in a photojournalists life? Millions. Literally.
I’ve lost count since I started shooting photos at eight years-old with a Polaroid Land Camera (which I still own). It’s a way of life this photojournalism thing which is endlessly fascinating. The trip along the way, now in my 31st year professionally and the last 25 with the Press Democrat, has been an adventure in life. What it has to offer, ranging from implausible beauty to the utterly cruel things life randomly pitches out have shaped and molded who I am. That means I get to witness history. Pretty cool, eh? This journey has included photographing lots of inanimate objects which can be terribly boring. I’ve also borne the brunt of people unhappy to see a photographer show up to document less than pleasant circumstances. Then there’s the weather, which wreaks havoc on the human race daily. So I document the clouds. My advice for anyone having a bad day is to go outside and take a picture of those clouds once in awhile. It will do wonders for the interior beast. Unless you are using a metal tripod in an electrical storm.
-Kent Porter