What’s goin on?

By: Brandon Chapple

Sometimes there is absolutely nothing happening. Today was one of those days and I have no pictures to show for it. I walked all around campus and just could not find anything that was remotely interesting.
In fact, for a documentary photographer, logic would denote that there are no photographs to be had on one of those days. If there is nothing happening, how can I make a picture when my job consists of documenting things happening?
Fortunately, things have a way of defying logic. For a good photographer, some of the best pictures are taken of absolutely nothing happening. I do not know what other people call this phenomenon, but I call it art.

In my opinion, art is nothing more than feelings. The picture above was taken during a night last spring at a place where nothing was really happening, and in that nothingness, I made one of my favorite pictures of all time.

A good photojournalist always incorporates a little bit of art into the documentation. It is more than just the rule of thirds or other elements that make a picture pleasing to look at, because a good picture is not good because it has nice composition. A good picture has the content that evokes emotions, happy, sad and everything in between.

And when a photographer can get that content when nothing is happening, it truly is something great.

A Lost Feature

By: Jason Johnson

Originally I was attempting to catch a fleeting rainbow over Pulliam Hall’s clock tower but I just wasn’t fast enough. There is a faint sign of it in this photograph but it’s almost not even noticeable.

I tried to use the members of the soccer club as a nice foreground element but the meaning of the photograph kind of gets lost as the soccer players become the subject.

I like this image. I don’t have any names or much of a caption, but I just think it looks neat. I’ll probably go back soon and get a better feature out of this.

Outtakes from the Saluki football scrimmage

By: Jason Johnson

Not all the good photographs we take get to run in the newspaper. Unfortunately, I didn’t shoot very strong last night, but I did manage to get a couple frames I liked.

My introduction

Four-year-old Jeshua Mclanahan walks family friend Bella Tuesday during the Meet Me On Main Street celebration that began in front of the Recreation Center and progressed to the Carbondale Pavilion. Jason Johnson ~ Daily Egyptian

James Phoenix, left, a sophomore in political science and Justin Stofferahn a junior double majoring in political science and journalism helped to sign students up for the registered student organization SIU Students For Barack Obama. The RSO was just one vendor present Tuesday at the Meet Me On Main Street celebration in front of the Recreation Center. Jason Johnson ~ Daily Egyptian

¬¬Hi, I’m Jason Johnson another staff photographer at the Daily Egyptian and Assistant Picture Editor.

I’m not new to blogging but I’m not very good at keeping up on my post. I’d rather be shooting. However, I will try to keep up and provide those reading with a “behind the scenes” look at what we do, how we do it and of course why we do it.

I plan on posting my outtakes from assignments and possibly pictures of the staff just doing their thing. The two pictures today are the two that didn’t make the printed page but pictures that I still liked.

Stay tuned….. you might just see something you like.

- Jason

Welcome

Hey there one and all,

This is Brandon Chapple, staff photographer for the Daily Egyptian, welcoming you to our first blog of the semester. For those of you unaware with how a photoblog works, three times a week (maybe more if we get a little ambitious) one of us lovely photographers will sit down and spill his or her brain about a certain picture he or she took or a certain assignment he or she covered.

It could be profound. It could be quaint. It could change your life.

In most cases, you will just get a little insight into how photographers bring you the news with our cameras as opposed to our pens.

So my insight is why I’m sitting here in front of this computer. I’m going to talk a little bit about my first week here at the Daily Egyptian.

For my first week, I’m coming off of probably one of the worst summers of my life. For the first time, I feel like I’m starting a new semester physically and mentally behind where I was last spring. This summer has left me in somewhat of a daze and I’m finding it harder to want to take my head out of the clouds. On one hand, it is incredibly discouraging.  On the other, I’m trying to turn it into motivation.

It’s hard for me to comment on my work because I’m the biggest critic of my work. Though I’ve received multiple compliments for both of these pictures, I still don’t really like either of them, and I still think I could have photographed both assignments a million times better. I think what is most discouraging is how I seemed to have lost touch with my photography. Usually I have a zillion things to say about pictures but now I find myself not only drawing blanks but also apathetic about having nothing to say.

Enough complaining. I also learned this week that when our professors say “the bar is raising here at SIUC,” it isn’t all talk. I’m already finding myself incredibly jealous of other photographers work, and it has just been the first week. But it’s a good thing, because that is the motivation we all need. And I don’t know about the other photographers, but besides reporting the news and getting intimate with a community, what really drives me is seeing how jealous other photographers are when I bring back that perfect image.

Hopefully next time I’ll be talking about one of those pictures. Until then…

Welcome

This is our new blog section.  Hope you enjoy!