Navy Imagery Insider Nov. 2010

E O

FIC

OF

N

Nov-Dec 2010

IN

F

IO

For members of the PA/VI community



R M AT

INSIDER



FO

NAVY IMAGERY

U S N AV Y

NI L NISI VERUM

Steichen

and The Birth of Navy Photojournalism... at his Connecticut home and take a stab at documentary photography. He even spent some time with early color film using 35 mm hand held cameras.

He’d also been heavily influenced by the work of Roy Stryker’s Farm Security Administration photographers, who traveled the country documenting the Depression.

So by the time the war started, he was itching to get back in the game. He wanted to document the war.

He tried to get back into the Army — he’d served in World War I in France, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel and commanding aerial photography units. For his service, the French government awarded him the Legion of Honor, their highest decoration.

But by World War II, he was 62 and the Army didn’t want him.

However, he had friends in high places who pulled strings and got him an interview with Capt. Arthur Radford, the head of aviation training at the Navy’s Bureau of Aeronautics.

The Navy’s personnel machine suggested that Steichen be employed as a civilian.

Radford said that wouldn’t do — he needed

U.S. Navy photos

T

he Aviation Photographic Unit was not the usual military unit.

In an age of massive Navy task groups and huge Army units made up of tens of thousands of men, Steichen’s unit was a bit of an anomaly.

That’s because it was a band of storytellers, experienced craftsmen who worked alone — often thousands of miles apart and rarely interacting with each other.

“Concentrate on the men,” Edward Steichen, the unit’s commander, would task his photographers. “The machines of war come and go, but the men never become obsolete — tell their story, the struggle of the little guy.”

It was that work which captured images of combat and the drudgery of military life between battles that has brought to life that war and the people who fought it.

Steichen was the greatest legend in the world of photography. Throughout the 1930s, he had been the photographer to the stars with his portraits gracing the pages of Vanity Fair and Vogue magazines.

By 1938, he retired at the top of his game, saying he wanted to grow flowers

by Mark D. Faram

Cover Story continues on page 2

navyvisualnews@navy.mil 703.614.9154

AMERICA’S NAVY: A GLOBAL FORCE FOR GOOD

Steichen in uniform.

Radford fought and won, and Steichen entered active duty in February 1942 as a lieutenant commander. He started forming his unit, which would operate out of the Bureau’s Training Literature division.

“We also discovered that it was easier to get funding for what we needed under the name of “training,” said Lt. Wayne Miller, the unit’s first member, “Especially early in the war, fewer questions were asked,” he said.

By the end of the war, Steichen was one of the top officers in naval photography, commanding all combat units in the Pacific.

His unit, initially six still photographers and one motion picture shooter, remained separate, and these photographers first documented aviation training — fulfilling Radford’s initial vision. But Steichen wanted his men in the thick of the action, combat documenting photo.

Steichen quickly learned the Navy’s system by working with the Navy’s personnel leaders to get his men orders that allowed them to travel anywhere and modify their itineraries en route.

He set out to develop his own network of friends in high places, lining up the brass in Washington to have their portrait shot by “the famous Steichen.”

The result was that he was able to not only get his unit the equipment and film they needed, but he was also able to get them the access needed to put that material to work in the field by getting his relatively “low ranking” officers carte blanche to travel to and around the war zones.

Steichen also had to fight the Navy’s cultural barriers. Before the war, photography was strictly an enlisted man’s game and it wasn’t “officer like” for them to carry their own gear.

Photo by Lcdr. Charles Fenno Jacob, USNR

Cover Story continued

By the end of the war, their work had been culled into a library of more than 14,000 images which are now in the National Archives. The work is historically significant not only as a visual record of the war but also for the impact it had in shaping the history of photography in the postwar years.

Though the men were working on stories at the time and some were published that way during the war, what most Americans have seen down through the years are just the single, iconic images these photographers took.

One battle Steichen lost, however, was getting his shooters names under their images. At the time, all photos released from the Navy were credited only with “U.S. Navy Photo” — the photographer’s name was forbidden to be published. Though he fought throughout the war, he never succeeded in getting that rule changed.

These shooters were the

Navy’s first photojournalists and Steichen’s edict to his photographers still holds true — by concentrating on the individual Sailors and telling their stories, the photojournalists of today are showing the world what the outstanding men and women of the U.S. Navy do. *Editor’s note: Mark D. Faram, (JO1 ret.) is an Advanced Visual Journalism Program (Syracuse) graduate and a writer and photographer for the Navy Times. He wrote the book Faces of War: The Untold Story of Edward Steichen’s World War II Photographers

“Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited, and the wealth and confusion man has created. It is a major force in explaining man to man.” ~Edward Steichen DIRECTOR EDITORIAL Editor Staff Writers Contributors

Christopher Madden Kristina Miller Oscar Sosa Damon Moritz MCC Terrina Weatherspoon

navyvisualnews@navy.mil 703.614.9154

Craig Clarke Mark D. Faram LAYOUT/ART DIRECTOR

MC2 Jay M. Chu

AMERICA’S NAVY: A GLOBAL FORCE FOR GOOD

Images like Joe Rosenthal’s flag raising on Mt. Suribachi during the war in the Pacific, and Eddie Adams’ 1968 photo showing the execution of a Viet Cong suspect in Saigon during the Vietnam conflict, are iconic and impactful, but are rare moments in time. In most cases, events will require more than one photo to tell the story effectively. I strongly encourage units to submit multiple photos with each story.

Here are some recommendations to consider: When shooting a ribbon cutting, include some images of the facility being celebrated. If you are covering a speaking event, include an image of the introduction, images of the audience, and multiple shots of the presenter. If you are shooting a major award there are at least two primary images: receiving the award and receiving the certificate, then look for possible family interaction, and closeups of the award. Depending on the nature of the award, with some planning it is very useful to include a shot of working environment. If they are a Sailor of the Year, for example, arrange an opportunity to get an image of the Sailor on the job. Not only will it compliment the story, but it helps to provide useful working imagery of our best Sailors and civilians in the fleet.

Ask any editor, when you provide zero options, you dramatically increase the chance of ending up on the editing room floor, and no photo with the story. As always please call us to discuss projects and feedback.

Speaking of feedback, it has been overwhelmingly positive for the first edition of the “Insider.” So, thank you for your continued contributions and comments; this is a community publication.

~CJM

Navy Office of Information Pentagon RM4B514 Washington, D.C. 20350-1200 Office: 703-614-9154 DSN: 224

2

INSIDERPERSPECTIVE

The Chinook crew chief walked toward me. I had my camera around my neck and was sure he was going to tell me to put it away. Instead he asked, “are you a PAO?” I said, “yes,” as I reached for my badge. He said, “We can harness you in near the back and you can sit on the ramp and take pictures out of the back of the helicopter if you’d like”.

That was not what I was expecting to hear, and it felt like I was listening to someone else speak when “that sounds great!” flew out of my mouth.

As the helo took off, I left my seat and sat down on the ramp near the gunner.

Pretty soon I was sitting right on the edge, my feet dangling hundreds of feet in the air. I took some great photos that day both in the sky and on the ground.

That was truly the first time I realized how fortunate I was to have this job, and also that I better not waste this incredible opportunity to show the world what they aren’t seeing on TV; that even over the war-torn lands of Afghanistan, you can look through the lens and capture a pretty picture.

Two weeks later I’m on a convoy headed to Shalghamy. When we arrived, I immediately got out of the vehicle and looked

Afghanistan,

One Photo

navyvisualnews@navy.mil 703.614.9154

around. Dust as far as the eye could see … and in the middle of all that dust, people and equipment.

The Army was building a combat outpost and we were there to see their progress.

I raised my camera and began looking through it for a photo. And then … click.

My first photo was of an Afghanistan National Army soldier standing perimeter security holding an RPG. I have to tell you, if I saw this in America, I would have been shaken to the bone.

But standing there, looking at him through a glass eye, I could have been taking a picture of butterflies. The camera made it feel less real. However, when I got back later that evening and downloaded the photos, chills ran through my body.

This job allows me to be very close to danger. So close in fact, I barely have to use a zoom lens.

story and photo by MCC(SW) Terrina Weatherspoon

at a time

A week later, I’m in a hospital room. A young man is receiving a Purple Heart. It turns out that he was closer to danger than he should have been. My commodore reaches down and places the medal on his shirt and shakes his hand.

With glassy eyes he looks at the commodore and says, “I will come back to the fight if I can, sir, but I don’t know, a broken back sounds pretty serious.” I thank God silently for the camera. I keep it up to my face. It was the only thing covering my tears.

I’m grateful, though, that while the camera covers my emotion, it is busy capturing the emotion of others. A fellow MCC once told me that while deployed to Iraq,

AMERICA’S NAVY: A GLOBAL FORCE FOR GOOD

a buddy of his received a picture of his newborn son in the mail. He snapped a picture of the Marine holding the photo of his son. The Marine never made it home from that deployment. After his tour was up, the MCC went to visit his buddy’s wife.

That photo was framed on the wall. “I took that photo of your husband,” he said. She responded with, “thank you, it’s the only picture my son will ever have of him and his father.”

That’s why it’s important that we are here and I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.

Editor’s note: MCC Terrina Weatherspoon is a Navy Reservist assigned to CHINFO. She is also a regular contributor to the Navy’s Blog at www.navy.mil/blog/

3

Intelligence Collection through Social Media

Photo by MCSN Aaron Shelley

by Craig Clarke

navyvisualnews@navy.mil 703.614.9154

AMERICA’S NAVY: A GLOBAL FORCE FOR GOOD

lavished with high praise but they should be encouraged and grown. Commands that are lacking a social media presence should move in this direction. It is going to be exciting to see how the use of social media grows. But ...

As someone who works in OSINT, I argue that the easiest target to perform open source collection on is the United States. The PA community will have to manage DODs social media presence so we do not enable the open source collection of our adversaries.

Case in point. Bataan posted to their Facebook page during Operation Unified Response a photograph of six Sailors with the caption “A few of Bataan’s Cryptologic Technicians. Whatever they do, it’s a secret.”

While not identified specifically, names are visible on their uniforms along with friends and family further identifying them by commenting on the photograph through Facebook. The ship’s Facebook page is completely open and viewable by anyone with an Internet connection.

This photograph is a very easy opportunity for an adversary to build a targeting package on a group of Sailors that have access to top secret material in their job as cryptologic technicians. Just using Google to search on their names reveals important information on several of these Sailors, including home address, a recent property purchase, an impending marriage, hometown and high school, hobbies, places they frequent socially.

The list could go on.

The U.S. is an open society and should never exist in a closed vacuum. The public affairs community should reflect that when portraying the stories of our servicemen and women.

They should never be faceless or nameless.

But, some consideration needs to be given as to how we can disable adversaries in their intelligence targeting. Would the Russians and Chinese salivate at the opportunity of having a package of information on a Sailor that works in the top secret crypto realm that included full name, family, address, phone number, and places they visit regularly in social settings while off duty? That goes without question.

Editor’s note: Craig Clarke is the subject matter expert for Open Source Intelligence at the Marine Corps Intelligence Activity located at MCB Quantico.

Photo by MC2 Candice Villarreal

The intelligence community divides the tradecraft of doing intelligence into disciplines, referred to as “the INTs.” The newest is a discipline known as Open Source Intelligence (OSINT). It is defined as publically available information that anyone can lawfully obtain by request, purchase, or observation for the purpose of addressing a specific intelligence requirement. We found this especially powerful during Operation Unified Response, DoD’s humanitarian response to the 2010 Haitian earthquake.

In Haiti, open source intelligence drove Marine Corps operations on the ground; which included information derived from press reports, social media platforms, and international websites.

I suppose that the Marine Corps never imagined an expeditionary mission being driven by Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Flickr and YouTube, but we certainly established that precedent.

Information posted to social media by Haitian nationals and aid workers helped us to navigate our area of operation, which was on the southern peninsula west of Port au Prince.

In the initial stage of the operation, OSINT helped us determine who needed help, where they were located, how to reach them, and what specific aid was needed — a kind of virtual 911 call center. As the operation continued, OSINT enabled us to effectively partner with NGOs and aid organizations, getting them to a steady state so that U.S. forces could redeploy. OSINT also provided us with information on logistics, navigation, reports of violence, movements of internally displaced persons (IDPs), aid shortages, and the like. An overwhelming tsunami of information flowed out of Haiti for us to tap into. We issued a daily report ,seven days a week, over an eight week period, even working through two blizzards.

A large part of the information flow that poured out of our AO originated from the public affairs community. PAOs posting to various social media platforms greatly aided our efforts, helping us to formulate and strengthen our intelligence analysis. For example, USS Carl Vinson arrived on station less than 72 hours after the initial quake. Photographs posted to the ship’s Facebook page as their operation unfolded told us an important story. IDPs were overcrowding boats in ports trying to flee for the undamaged rural countryside. Airdrops of food, water, and medical supplies were proving to be frenetic; boots would have to be put on the ground to provide order to aid distribution points. Social media was doing its amazing job by staying out in front of a fast moving, quickly developing situation and enabling our OSINT reporting.

On a daily basis, we tapped into several social media efforts: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr.

Along with keeping us on top of events as they unfolded, these PAO social media efforts greatly encouraged us and kept our morale high. For instance, we saw video of a Haitian woman from one of villages giving birth aboard Bataan via the ship’s Facebook page. As the DOD distributed aid and saved lives, our intel shop saw the operation take place in real-time on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr.

From an intel and PA perspective, Haiti is where the DOD social media efforts matured and came into its own. These efforts should not only be lauded and

4

OUTTAKES

by Oscar Sosa

Part of our job as Navy photojournalists is documenting our environment. This often includes our shipmates, their activities and the conditions they work under, however, many times we find ourselves taking pictures of equipment without the benefit of people in the frame. This type of photography often produces static and uninteresting images that tend to do nothing more than document an inanimate object. Stuff on a ship’s deck is fine for forensics work or general documentation purposes, but static, lifeless images of materiel don’t translate well for journalism.

three Sailors holding up an SH-60 with a cargo pennant. It was shot at F/2.8 @ 1/3200 sec. It would have been a much better image if the photographer had slowed the shutter speed down to 1/500 sec. or even as low as 1/125 sec. The helicopter rotors are moving so fast that blurring them won’t affect people or other objects moving near the aircraft. Keep in mind that the focal length of your lens affects the apparent motion of the rotors.

You will need a slower shutter speed for a wide-angle lens than you will for a telephoto lens, however if you keep your

One of the easiest ways to give life to an inanimate object is to convey a sense of motion. This can be accomplished through a variety of photographic techniques, most of which require no additional equipment other than a camera, sometimes an offcamera flash, and always a photographer willing to put thought into work.

The most frequent examples that come into NVNS are images of “model helicopters” that look like they’re suspended in the air with invisible strings.

There’s just something not real about a helicopter flying with the rotors stopped.

The image above is a good example of

shutter speed down around 1/500 sec., or slower, you will achieve good results.

Another way to show motion is to show motion [no, not a typo]. People, aircraft, weapons, vehicles, ships and other shipboard equipment are designed to move. We are not a static Navy; we move and often move fast. Show it. An F/A-18 launch photographed at 1/5000 sec. is a shot of an aircraft just sitting on the flight deck. By slowing the shutter you can give the viewer a sense of the dynamic nature of the flight deck. Use juxtaposition to illustrate motion by focusing on a stationary subject and blurring the moving object, or

navyvisualnews@navy.mil 703.614.9154

AMERICA’S NAVY: A GLOBAL FORCE FOR GOOD

vice versa by using a slow-shutter pan of your subject and blurring everything else.

Ships also move… let us see it. Slow the shutter for a passing ship or during an underway replenishment. You can get all sorts of unexpected results, including light streaks, milky water, mixed lighting and other surprises. This type of motion can be achieved in bright sunlight by enabling the “low” setting for the ISO in the camera menu. Set the ISO to 50, dial the aperture up to F/22 and let the shutter speed drop as low as possible. ISO 50 at F/22 on a bright, sunny day at noon will give a shutter speed between 1/30 and 1/15 sec.

It’s always a good idea to have a circular polarizing filter sized for at least one of your favorite lenses. A polarizing filter gives more vibrant skies, cuts down on glare and can substitute for a neutral density filter. I do not recommend a neutral density filter, as the usefulness of that filter does not justify the expense, however, it is the best way to reduce the light getting to the sensor.

Camera tricks are not a substitute for understanding your subject and working a situation. Shutter drags, panning shots and blurred movement are useful techniques, but they can be overdone. Ultimately, it’s important to take every opportunity to experiment and seek mentors who are good at it, because they’re out there. If you’re part of a small shop or you are the shop, check out the photo gallery on Navy.mil and find MCs who are getting the cool motion images… then contact them for insight and tips. Think before you trip the shutter and you will come up with a unique way to tell the Navy’s story.

5

GOT

by Damon Moritz Navy video is absolutely critical to successfully communicating the Navy story.

Are you documenting what is going on aboard your ship or station?

Perhaps the perception is that NVNS is only interested in breaking news; nothing could be further from the truth.

Almost daily, NVNS receives requests for specific video on a wide variety of topics, from an even wider variety of requestors. In many cases they are unfamiliar with the subject, and have little understanding of what distinguishes a Super Hornet from a Hornet, a Sea Sparrow from a Harpoon, or the CH-53E helicopter from a MH-53E. Ninety percent of these requests are in search of products to complete stories already in full production, and as a result the deadlines are extremely short.

These short deadlines make direct tasking impractical. Simply put, if we don’t have it already in the database, then it is likely the Navy will miss an opportunity to tell its story.

The best answer is to explore ways to keep a consistent flow of up-to-date video coming into NVNS during the course of normal operations.

For example: We suggest forwarding prime cuts to NVNS from the video used in the production of an All Hands Update (AHU); thereby supporting two products with the same video; the proverbial two birds with one stone.

The Navy uses many different brands and versions of video editing software and this can cause confusion when preparing files for transmission. It is not possible to give a step-by-step guide for exporting video for each platform. Instead we offer some general guides with common settings: Go to www.chinfo.navy.mil/visualnews/ training.html and select Video File Notes –

June 30, 2010. Take time to review some of the other training tips available at this link.

Use care when developing your slates. With released print stories, misspelled words and grammar can be easily corrected; in a video slate, not so much. In each case, the entire slate must be removed, reconstructed, and edited back into the original video product.

Sometimes it is good to get back to the basics. Still media and video should be identified by a VIRIN, not a noun name.

Imagine what happens when NVNS receives multiple files with the noun name “primecuts.mov”. One of them gets overwritten or mistaken for the other, creating confusion.

That is why the VIRIN is so critical to a sustained and organized workflow.

History and Full Life Cycle

Ask yourself these questions. “When was the last time my command sent in a video for the historic record?” Is your command being considered for the national record?

In most cases the video files we are getting meet today’s immediate news standard, but they don’t stand the test of time. Film producers, documentarians and historians are unlikely to use a QuickTime or Windows Media Player file as a permanent record.

When we are trying to fill a request for the next “Transformers” movie or the TV series “NCIS”, compressed files just do not stand up.

There is no argument, the Navy PA and VI team did a really good job in Haiti. NVNS continues to review hours and hours of original video tape, transferring prime-cuts to XDCAM and forwarding to DIMOC for eventual National Archives consideration; but this has been the exception.

In all respects the PA/VI team is also the U.S. Navy’s historian. Everything we produce becomes an official record. The print stories, radio productions and video products are all historically significant. Per OPNAVINST 3104.1A, and SECNAVINST 5720.44B, and 5720.47B, NVNS has a duty and requirement

to ensure that the Navy’s story is told for future generations through visual information resources produced by the fleet.

The Collective Fix

So much is happening in the Navy right now beyond just uniforms; aircraft and ships are being retired, completely new platforms like the San Antonio-class LPDs and LCS littoral ships are coming online and there is a huge demand signal for HD video content to tell their story. Our available library is, however, significantly challenged.

NVNS works with a number of movie companies and documentary producers and they are consistently asking for seemingly routine video.

Please take some time to document the following in high definition [if capable] and send us tapes as soon as practical.

• • • • • • • • •

Ship’s ID or command ID (aerial, signs, labels, hull number, full rig) Firsts and lasts (flights, deployments, leadership) All hard-mounted weapons (CIWS, Advanced Sea Sparrow, RAM, guns etc).

Aircraft (launches, recoveries, maintenance, weapons upload etc.)

All of the operational spaces (combat, navigation, bridge, etc.)

Sailors during evolutions depicting teamwork, training or readiness Life as a Sailor (berthing, church, recreation, PT, games, MWR trips, etc.)

Weather (the weather’s impact on Sailors, ships, buildings and equipment) Civilians, Reservists and families.

Fleet-wide participation is needed in order to properly document the full scope of our Navy today. NVNS is here for one reason, to get your quality products into FULL distribution as quickly and as accurately as possible to help tell the Navy’s story, now and into the future.

Nothing is perfect, but there is nothing wrong with trying to get there.

Tina Jones Navy Visual News Service video editor

navyvisualnews@navy.mil 703.614.9154

AMERICA’S NAVY: A GLOBAL FORCE FOR GOOD

6

LINKS to KNOW

1. JayCut A free online video editor you can use to upload videos, photos and music to create and share material. http://jaycut.com/

4. We Are Photographers A website by and for photographers with tips, regular photo contests and critical reviews of submitted photographs. www.wearephotographers.com

2. Lynda.com Online training website with topics ranging from digital photography basics to 3D software design techniques. Some instruction is free, though monthly fee gains you full access to all material. www.lynda.com

5. Pdfcrowd Free website to create PDFs from HTML or web pages. http://pdfcrowd.com

7. Graphic Design & Publishing Center Information exchange on a variety of design topics. You’ll find resource links and articles on photo editing software, website design, social media, typography, layout and graphic design. www.graphic-design.com/

6. The Edit Foundry A blog from the National Press Photographers Association with tips on various aspects of video editing. http://blogs.nppa.org/editfoundry/

3. Newslab Blogs, news and commentary on creating better news stories plus helpful listing of resources worth spending your time FROM THE EDITOR: going through.

We need your input! This section is meant to share online resources that help us all increase our knowledge of visual imagery. While the www.newslab.org NVNS staff has a laundry list of favorite VI sites, we’d like to hear what you have bookmarked. Send us any sites that you have which offer tips, training or even just inspire your VI work.

Desperately Seeking...

Holiday Imagery. How do we celebrate the holidays away from home? Whether in the middle of the ocean, desert or in between, an important part of our Navy’s story for the public (and history) is how we spend the holidays away from family. We are particularly lacking in video of this period, so spend some time documenting this occasion with both media.

Reserve Component. While we are all one team now, thanks to the Active Reserve Integration, there is still significant value in showing the public how the Reserve Component (RC) trains and integrates with the Active Component. In order to do that, we need images with captions that indicate when RC members are in them. There is a large spectrum of opportunities, so send in any quality imagery you get. Again, still and video media is needed.

Events and Deadlines 1. The CHINFO Merit Awards Submission deadline Jan. 31, 2011 www.chinfo.navy.mil 2. The Thompson-Ravitz Awards Entry deadline March 25, 2011 pa-net.navy.mil/eRoomReq/Files/ chinfo/PANET/0_f7f39/5305.7B.pdf 3. Photoshop World East March 30 - April 1, 2011 Orange County Convention Center Orlando, Fla. photoshopworld.com/register/ 4. National Association of Broadcasters April 9- April 14, 2011 Las Vegas, Nev. www.nabshow.com/2010/default.asp 5. Photoshop World West September 7-9, 2011 Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino Las Vegas, Nev. photoshopworld.com/register/

Navy Style Guide

Ships: On first reference, refer to ship as follows: The amphibious assault ship USS Nassau (LHA 4), the Military Sealift Command ammunition ship USNS Flint (T-AE 32).

On second reference, do not use USS or ‘the’ before the ship’s name. For example: Nassau is on a deployment in the western Pacific region.

If the ship has a multi-word name, be sure to include the whole name on second reference. For example: the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69). Dwight D. Eisenhower is on deployment in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility.

Aircraft: Include the specific aircraft type. For example: SH-60 Sea Hawk helicopter, F/A-18C Hornet strike fighter jet.

Sea Hawk is two words.

All references to commercially available sites and services are provided for informational purposes only, without Department of the Navy endorsement. navyvisualnews@navy.mil 703.614.9154

AMERICA’S NAVY: A GLOBAL FORCE FOR GOOD

7

SCHOLARSHIP

BY NVNS STAFF

Free Training, Apply Now NVNS has procured seats at three different professional seminars for those eager to learn from the best, but we need your applications now.

The first two seminars are held in St. Petersburg, Fla., at the Poynter Institute, which is a school for journalists. The third is hosted by the National Press Photographers Association at Oklahoma University in Norman, Okla.

Poynter seminar one is “The DSLR Play Book: Still to Motion (G424-11)” and it will be held February 22-24. The application deadline is Dec. 20.

The program will teach you how to document and review video coverage from the field and how to download it to your computer to edit, with an appreciation for good quality and compelling visuals. Explore recent case studies and effective examples of video journalism produced with these new hybrid reporting tools and get tips on how to best use the DSLR in your shop. If you don’t have it already, NVNS will provide a kit for the duration of the seminar.

Poynter seminar two is “The Backpack Video Storyteller I (B432-11)” and it runs April 4-8.

Application deadline is Jan. 20.

This program will show you how to write, report, photograph, even edit your own video stories for online and/or broadcast when you’re alone in the field.

You will learn the fundamentals of light, motion, sequencing, natural sound and character development. We also will teach you the ethics of video storytelling and editing, and how telling video stories online

Holiday Message

is different from television. In this jam-packed week you will produce several stories. All gear is provided.

The third opportunity is for the 2011 NewsVideo Workshop which runs March 13-18.

Application deadline is Jan. 20. The workshop is a week long, intense immersion into the world of moving pictures and sound. You will spend 12 – 16 hours each day learning from a faculty of more than 20 nationally- and internationallyrecognized, award-winning journalists. There are two “shoot & edit” seats available, which means you will be using gear to produce stories. NPPA professionals will critique your products. If you don’t have it already, NVNS will provide a kit.

Particulars: The awarded applicant’s command (or the individual) is responsible for paying per diem, travel and any incidental fees. A vehicle is not required as lodging is walking distance for each, though NPPA participants will find a car useful when going out on assignments.

To apply, please send the following to Christopher Madden at navyvisualnews@ navy.mil • A 100-word professional biography written in the third person • A 250-to-500-word essay describing your daily duties, the relevance of the seminar to your job, your goals for the seminar and how you will apply the training to your work.

• A letter of endorsement by CO, Dept head or PAO. Commands will be notified of winners in writing.

As we move into the holiday season, those of us at CHINFO would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued efforts in all that you do for our community, our Navy and our country. Know that we value your efforts in telling the Navy’s story. We also know that many of you will be deployed over the holidays, so no matter where you are please take care of each other.

Best wishes to all of you. navyvisualnews@navy.mil 703.614.9154

“New Navy.mil Local Pages Puts the Power in Your Hands”

by Defense Media Activity Anacostia

One of the easiest things PAOs and MCs can do as communicators to ensure that the Navy’s story is being told accurately and timely is to take advantage of all of the tools available. The newest part of that tool kit is a recent update to the content management system (CMS) for Navy.mil.

We have made significant changes to the local pages based on feedback from you. The updated local pages now provide commands with release authority to upload your local content and better reach your audience. This new CMS allows you to post: • Four images of the day • 100-image gallery • 10 videos from the approved video library • One audio podcast (which you produce) • Four multimedia/ads - from a library or your own • One highlighted All Hands Magazine issue • Five links on a customizable menu bar for navigation • 20 simple local pages for items of local command interests such as Sailor of the Quarter, Ombudsman information, bios, etc.

When you upload a local image directly to your command’s Navy.mil page, you are also simultaneously sending it to the Navy Visual News Service staff for consideration in the Navy’s gallery.

If you have not taken advantage of these new tools, you can start the process by quickly completing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) via your management console. The MOU should be signed by the PAO or MC who is the public affairs approval authority for the command, as this will be the individual who will be responsible for any images, podcasts, etc., that are posted on the local command’s website.

As soon as you have completed your MOU and it has been approved, you will be able to post material on your page. Training for the new features is built directly into the system.

If you do not have an account on CMS and you have been using the external submission site on Navy.mil to submit stories, contact the Navy News Staff at navynewsservice@dma.mil or (202) 433-3846 to set up an account. Submit your rank/rate, name, contact information and lead public affairs officer, and we will set up an account for you.

Your command must have a CMS account before completing the required MOU. Navy.mil serves as a touchstone of information about the Navy. Act now to take advantage of the tools at your disposal to tell the Navy’s story. Please contact us with any questions.

Are you in the loupe? by NVNS Staff NVNS produces a three minute multimedia production each week we call “U.S. Navy Week in Review.” These productions use video and still imagery received from the fleet during a given week, mixed with a contemporary music soundtrack. We post them to the Navy Facebook page on Saturday mornings, and have slowly gained a loyal following with many of our 200 thousand-plus Navy friends; they are also posted to YouTube.

High resolution versions of each production can be downloaded from the Navy Outreach Video Player on CHINFO’s Navy PA Resource Web Site at: www.chinfo.navy.mil/pages/outreach/videoplyr.html Download them to support your briefings and outreach engagements.

Periodically we elect to produce feature presentations to commemorate important events. Most recently we commemorated the attacks of 9/11, the tenth anniversary of USS Cole bombing, the Centennial of Naval Aviation, and a special Navy Birthday tribute that CNO presented at the Washington, D.C., Navy Ball and Three-Four Star conference.

Just like the lottery, you must play to win. So keep sending in your imagery and video products so we can make sure these productions are as complete a snapshot of America’s Navy, a global force for good.

AMERICA’S NAVY: A GLOBAL FORCE FOR GOOD

8