Around the Web on a Monday

World Press Photo throws up its hands and gives up: After much careful (and admirable) deliberation on the matter of rectitude and accuracy in photojournalism, a beleaguered World Press Photo has decided to defend its values by offering an outlet to all those who want to manipulate their digital images. After fighting hard for reportorial accuracy, WPP has realized it's probably a loosing [sic] battle. Not only has it relaxed its hard-line requirements for regular news photographs in sensible ways in a new Code of Ethics, but it will begin a new, separate contest a year from now in which the regular rules of photojournalism will be abandoned. This strikes us as sensible: it's like the editorial page of a newspaper—a steam vent. Should have the effect of making it easier for people to conform to the ethical guidelines for the traditional awards. Good move, WPP, probably, but still, good luck with that.

Somebody gotta feed them hogs

Hey, want to see a hundred thousand pictures of my great-grandfather? Norm Macdonald on photography.

Quote o' the Day Epoch: "We've moved into an age where the ubiquity and complexity of toolsets outpace the ability to leverage them tastefully." —Stanford Design Fellow Jayson Mayden, in an article noting that many people never learn how to operate many of the controls on the complex devices they buy. The article at the Washington Post last March was called "Why Apple and Google are struggling to design simple software." It should be more widely acknowledged that useful, effective simplicity is incredibly difficult to engineer. (I'd say "nobody should know that better than people who use high-end cameras," but that would sound snarky.)

Highly anticipated Hasselblad X1D still high anticipated: n/t.

Expensive processing: Owa Odighizuwa, a defensive end for the New York Giants, was fined $12,154 by the NFL for unsportsmanlike conduct after he pretended he was taking a photo of safety Langdon Collins after Collins returned an interception for a touchdown. Celebrations are not allowed. For that price, it's too bad he didn't actually get to keep the shot.

TOP (tastefully) sells out: As long as you're going to be buying schtuff from Amazon anyway, please start here! As an experiment for the month of November, I'm adding Amazon's sporty new "Native" ads to our posts. Featured Comments will appear below the ads as normal. Although this might appear to be crass commercialism, actually it's...well, crass commercialism. But you know how it is—if you want to keep doing what you like to do, you gotta crack the nut and keep the enterprise humming. I'm going to be picking the items myself, though, to avoid ads for things like tampons, patio furniture, wrench sets, or books about the occult, not that I'd mind if you bought any of those things through the Search Bar. Let me know a) how this works for you, b) whether you find it annoying or interesting or whatever else (if you don't like it, I hope you'll just ignore it*), and c) if you have suggestions for other things I should feature.

(By the bye and not so by the way, this is about the hundredth thing I've tried to make money with the blog. A few of them even work.)

Photo by Chad Hunt

Parade of cuteness: I'm going to be missing the parade of cuteness that used to appear on the doorstep of my old downtown Waukesha house on this day every year. One of the bad things about living in the country: no trick-or-treaters. I lived on one of the best streets in Waukesha and we were a heavy-traffic neighborhood for trick-or-treaters, even some from out of town (city kids with no place to trick-or-treat in their own neighborhoods. Some people didn't like that, but I loved it—kids are kids and should get to be kids, no matter where they live).

Not the next best thing, but a nice idea for a project, is a photographer I found through Popular Photography, Chad Hunt, who sets up a mini-studio on his front porch every year and makes portraits of the kiddos in their costumes. Nice idea. Here's Chad's website, and hey...

...Happy Halloween!

Mike

*"That's it, I'm leaving!" says cranky guy who never once contributed a dime...who won't even actually leave.

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Kostas: "The ads are fine. The only problem for me is that they are for the US site. It's a shame that Amazon still haven't found a way to redirect people to the right site based on their location. At least it will serve as a reminder for me to use your UK Amazon link which I have bookmarked but sometimes forget to use."

Comments

[Mark Kinsman]

Well, if only you had featured occult books about patio furniture.....

On a serious note- all great choices on your first round of pics.

[James]

"Owa Odighizuwa, a defensive end for the New York Giants, was fined $12,154 by the NFL for unsportsmanlike conduct after he pretended he was taking a photo of safety Langdon Collins after Collins returned an interception for a touchdown. Celebrations are not allowed."
How do you explain to a 10-year-old fan that sport must not be enjoyed because a bunch of old crocs that can't play (and probably never could) say so?
I understand that celebrations should not taunt the opposition and agree with that, but geeeez!
Did they fine all the press photographers on the sidelines?

[c.d.embrey]

Moving the Sphinx isn't a crime—inventing the Sphinx and inserting it into a photo is.

Once upon a time I could pick up a tool and use it, no manual needed. Now-a-days they sell you the hammer head and expect you to design your own handle, complete with custom function buttons. Meh.

Because of petty rules, I've stopped watching most sports. The NASCARizeing of all motorsports is quickly killing my interest in racing. Double meh.

Selling out is not enough in a shrinking market. Chase Jarvis has reinvented himself as a non-photo entrepreneur, and will make considerably more money because of that fact. Good, intelligent writers are hard to find ... on any subject.

Chad Hunt is trying to force old-fashion Flash down my throat. When I arrive I'm told that I need to down-load Flash to view the site. Talk about bad design that goes against the idea of simple software. Triple meh.

[John Robison]

"...useful, effective simplicity is incredibly difficult to engineer."
Exactly why I still find so much pleasure in MMM cameras. I also applaud Leica for having the guts to produce the MA, even in limited numbers. A fully mechanical 35mm rangefinder without a meter? In 2016? In a business sense that is a crazy decision. Even so I think Leica is the only camera company who could carry it off. Can you imagine Olympus remaking a run of the OM-1n or Nikon bringing back the F2? Not a chance.

[John Krill]

So the WPP will now be a contest for fine art photographers?

[It's kinda like seeing magic in Vegas...you're not supposed to ask how it actually works. --Mike]

[Robert Roaldi]

Is the new category called Fauxtography?

[Joe B]

I don't mind the adv, it seems to be hard to avoid if as you say ya gotta pay the bills one way or another. Better than charging a yearly fee to see your content.

On another note I always enjoy your OT entries. How about OT adv for say coffee or tea pots, coffee brewers, other stuff you find useful to go with the OT blog entries for that day.

As far as simplicity... sure, but give us nerds something to chew on as well. Camera menus for advanced users and one stripped down version for speed and basic operation as an example. Have you seen programmable thermostat operating manuals? Good grief!

[Wolfgang Lonien]

John Robison> "Can you imagine Olympus remaking a run of the OM-1n or Nikon bringing back the F2?"

I'd buy them both, and then still wait for a Hassy 501 CM...

[matthew]

Computer systems have gotten so complex that we may have reached "peak simplicity". We're on the downward slope where additional simplification results in decreased usability.

An extreme example: http://xkcd.com/1133/
No one is going to successfully build and launch an "Up Goer Five" from those plans.

[Richard Parkin]

Is the new WPP category called mockumentary photography?

[james wilson]

How about Amazon gold box deals when they are photo related. I do not go to commercial sites often and I never get to see those deals. When I do see them it is because I find them on Nikon Rumors or something. If it looks good to me I will click through from the popup

[Jack]

I aprove the ads!
Not too many, relevant, and it makes it easier to support you.

Please report at the end of the year if it works.

[c.d.embrey]

I have no problem with a yearly phee. I subscribe to Radio Paradise(.)com, because I like the music. If either you or Ming Thein(.)com set up as a pay site, I'd gladly pay because both of you are intelligent and are a good read.

[Tom Bell]

Happy ++ with ads ....esp if camera / photo relevant content. When using Amazon happy to go through this site ....the least I can do!

[Edd Fuller]

Ads don't bother me a bit. As I say when I see a squirrel at the bird feeder, "Everybody has to make a living."

[Michael]

OK, fine, go for it, put in some relevant ads, no harm, well worth it for your fans, like me. You've already got me on that photo book. Just keep up the good work!

[Bill Tyler]

Are you sure that this WPP bit wasn't supposed to be embargoed for five months and a day?

[John]

I don't mind the ads at all. In fact, I'll be interested to see what you choose. Hope it's effective for you.

[David Bostedo]

"...many people never learn how to operate many of the controls on the complex devices they buy."

I don't think that's typically a bad thing. The real trick is whether or not people can do what they want to do with any kind of ease.

The only problem is if I want/need to use a feature, and it's so difficult to do that I never end up using it. (Maybe that was implicit in your comment above?) But I feel like that situation is rare, despite the myriad of features found in every device these days.

[Richard McKenzie]

That design quote struck a chord...a chord on an Englebart Keyset. Doug Engelbart designed a five-key 'keyset', which would allow complex commands through lots of learning. Englebart — who also invented the mouse — thought that 'user-friendly' simplicity (of the sort Steve Jobs and his one-buttoned mouse championed) was essentially selling us a simple (but not particularly powerful) tricycle over more complex bicycle, which required learning to get the most from it.

So much focus these days is placed on being able to operate something straight out of the box that if a user wants to go from tricycle riding to mountain biking, it's not easy. Our powerful technology is essentially neutered by the mass market. I say embrace well-designed complexity (of the sort iTunes isnt't) and reap the benefits.

[Yann P.]

Don't mind the adds at all, but... any chance you'll try (again) to become affiliate with Amazon.fr ?

[Matt Alofs]

I didn't buy the featured book, but it did lead me to Errol Morris' book on photography, "Believing is Seeing." And for half a second, you had me thinking of an Xpro2.

[Dogman]

I have Ad Blocker so I didn't see the ads. So I turned off Ad Blocker to see the ads and, honestly, I never even noticed them. Most tastefully executed ads can easily be ignored if you're so inclined--I use Ad Blocker because of the obnoxious pop-ups some sites employ.

That quote about "useful, effective simplicity" sounds like a worthy goal especially for camera companies to attempt until you read a few online reviews and blogs. Most of the time the reviewers, while praising a new camera, also include a list of other features they wish had been included. Recently I read a blog by just such a reviewer. He proclaimed the current Fujifilm X100T to be his favorite camera of all time but went on to say he hopes the replacement will have a 50mm equivalent lens, an f/1.4 lens, an articulating touch screen, be larger in size, use a bigger battery, have better AF, and....

So it goes.

[Andrew Molitor]

I the world press photo competition is indeed a good idea. The whole trope of "no manipulation allowed" is really a failure anyways. As I am fond of saying, one can lie with a crop as easily as with an erasure.

Ultimately you have to trust your people on the ground, and your editors. Throwing rules down about what adjustments are and are not permitted will not magically impart Truth to your pictures.

Gene Smith did some pretty radical modifications to pictures, but as far as I know, he told the Truth.

Hopefully the new WPP competition will require that the submissions likewise tell something like the Truth as well. Perhaps as an unwritten rule, I suppose, with the judges simply not awarding prizes to North Korean Photochops very often.

[Stephen Gilbert]

A sad commentary on our times: when I told a friend about a photographer taking pictures of trick or treaters, his comment was "that's creepy." To some (or many) people, the idea of a person photographing children immediately calls up images of kiddie porn.

[Eric Rose]

If Mike was using a "real" CMS (Content Management System) rather than Typepad he would be able to set it to recognize where his readers are located geographically and then server up content specific to that area. So Canadians would get Amazon.ca and the UK would get whatever suits them etc.

One thing I never do is create original content online. I use a simple editor on my computer, save the file and then upload it to the blog or whatever. That way the chances of loosing all your work is minimized.

Ads don't bother me because I use an ad blocker as do most people.