The Pines Review
Winter, 2010 Vol. III No. 1
Page 18 (Continued from page 17)
Homer Circle Nominations Sought by POMA The Professional Outdoor Media Association is seeking nominations from all fishing industry professionals, corporate and media for the POMA Homer Circle Fishing Communicator Award. The award annually recognizes an exceptional fishing industry journnalist Nominees are not required to be affiliated with any fishing industry or communicator‘s organization. For more information contact: andy.hahn@ bonniercorp.com or lldovey@ professionaloutdoormedia .org
Shed Hunting Photo & Copyright By Jeff Davis
lishing criteria or ethical standards, but the publication needs to know what they are dealing with. A problem even more vexing than creating images that never existed, is creating images that cannot exist. He had several composite images where the moon was inserted, but the moon was upside down, or a mirror image of itself. If we had published any of those photos it would have been highly embarrassing for us. (The direction of the sunlight was also wrong on all the moon composite images.) He also had a couple of images where he replaced the daytime sky with a field of stars from the night sky. The photos were dramatic and unusual, because they looked like they were shot on the surface of the moon. They may have been nice in a poster or calendar, but not to illustrate a story on how to hunt whitetail deer. In this case the photographer was not trying to fool anyone and did not have any ill intent. He simply found he could do something creative with his existing photos, and that they looked cool. He just tried to make better photos. He never considered the potential negative
impact that printing a faked image could have to his clients. This is a learning process, no one went nuts, and everyone learned something. I‘m not a Luddite, curmudgeon, or always want to keep doing everything like it was done ‗back in the day.‘ Quite the opposite – it surprised me greatly how much better I like digital photography over film, and one of the reasons is that I can do so much more with digital images than I could ever do with film. Photographers need to understand that if they are doing photography for themselves, they can do anything they want. If they are doing photography for someone else, that person or organization needs to be informed of anything out of the ordinary that was done to an image. Simply communicate with the client, find out their requirements and limitations, both technical and aesthetic, and inform them if you are doing anything out of the ordinary. I don‘t want to stifle creativity, but I don‘t want to be embarrassed, either. Simply understand: just because you can do something, doesn‘t mean you should. JD
An Editor’s Tale By Jeff Davis It is very easy for editors to change the words that writers provide, but until recently a photograph was more difficult to change. Now, photo editors can change virtually anything in a photograph, but they often get themselves into trouble. The web site www.photoshopofhorrors.com and the blog photoshopdisasters chronicle many of these, and while some are pretty subtle, some of these examples are so bad it boggles the mind how they ever saw print (like the photo of a couple that have five hands, women with no navels, and hands with six fingers). There are a lot of good editors out there,
but there are also more than a few clunkers. However, sometimes even good editors just can‘t help themselves. It reminds me of the old joke about a reporter, a photographer and an editor who were lost in the desert. They walked for miles across the trackless expanse, until they were at the point that they almost accepted their fate. Then, in the distance, they thought they saw something. They walked toward it, and they gradually accepted that it was not a mirage. They got closer and they could see the trees, and finally the water of the oasis. They arrived, and found a pond of fresh, clean water, surrounded by trees heavy with fruit, and a well-used trail on the other side. That meant that rescue would come. They screamed, laughed, and danced, knowing now they would survive. The reporter and photographer lay prone, and drank handful after handful of sweet, cool water. But then they noticed a shadow move over them, and heard a strange sound. They looked to their side, and saw the editor urinating in the pond. ―What are you doing,‖ they screamed. ―Just making it better,‖ said the editor.