| Ohio News Photographer |
| February 2000 |
Rules for the quarterly television clip contest were reviewed by the board with input by contest chairman Dave Colabine, TV vice president Vince Shivers and several members who voiced their concerns during the contest's first year.
Based upon those recommendations the board approved a change in categories for the contest. Due to a lack of participation the sports category has been dropped and will be replaced by an In-depth category. Complete rules will be mailed to all Television members. The updated rules will also be posted on the ONPA web site in a PDF file format.
The year end Television Contest will have a new chairman this year as well. Josh White, formerly of WCMH-TV in Columbus, had agreed to continue as chairman the past year despite changing jobs and moving to Denver, Colorado. His duties will be taken over by Anthony Giordullo of WLWT-TV in Cincinnati.
The board extends its thanks to White for staying on and seeing us through the current contest season. He will be a valuable contact in future contests to help acquire judges in the Denver market, one of the tops in the business.
Digital entries for the year end Still Contest could loom in the very near future. A software program designed to handle photography contests has been developed by Photo Systems Inc. The program was reviewed recently in News Photographer Magazine.
Several of the major contests have already made the switch from slide entries to digital, all reporting a major increase in participation. The most notable is the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar.
The state of Pennsylvania is the most recent to test the waters. The judging for their contest was to be held February 6th in Pittsburgh. Early word from Pennsylvania shows a 50 per cent increase in participation.
The contest was to be judged by Mike Levy of The Plain Dealer, ONPA President Ed Suba, Jr. and ONPA Board Chairman Bob DeMay both from the Akron Beacon Journal Judges will report their observations and findings to the membership at the convention in Cleveland where the board will seek the memberships input before making any decision.
This years' present contest has 90 photographers participating with over 2,000 slides entered. Twenty photographers submitted portfolios for the Still Photographer of the Year competition.
Television vice president Vince Shivers was elected to his first term in office following his appointment by the board the previous year to replace Ron Strah. Shivers defeated Anthony Giordullo in the only contested race in the election.
Remaining in office are: Ed Suba, Jr., president; Bob DeMay, Chairman of the Board; Lisa Dutton, Still Vice President; Kimberly Barth, Treasurer and David Andersen, Secretary.
Election Results |
||
|---|---|---|
Chairman | Bob DeMay | 88 |
President | Ed Suba Jr. | 86 |
Still Vice President | Lisa Dutton | 88 |
TV Vice President | Vince Shivers | 52 |
Tony Giordullo | 43 | |
Treasurer | Kimberly Barth | 90 |
Secretary | David Andersen | 90 |
A reminder that your dues must be paid to enter either the television or still clip contest. Cincinnati was not a safe place to be for photographers in December. First to get into the act was ONPA Treasurer, Kimberly Barth of the Akron Beacon Journal.
While driving to Riverfront Stadium to cover the Browns-Bengals football game she lost control of her car on an exit ramp in Cincinnati. Barth only received bumps and bruises but her Toyota Camry was a total loss.
She made arrangements with family members in town to get to the game and joined fellow staffer Gary Green on the sidelines to shoot and handled editing and transmitting duties flawlessly. Her new vehicle is a Toyota Rav 4. I guess you have to work in Toledo to afford a Porsche which two members of The Blade staff now drive Iım told.
Stephen Herppich of The Cincinnati Enquirer had his own close call, his of all places, on the basketball court. While covering the Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout Herppich receive bruised ribs and had nearly $20,000 of equipment damaged.
Herppich was on the floor when fans stormed the court after Xavier upset Cincinnati. "I got slammed down face first," Herppich said. "People were running on my back. I felt like I was drowning. I flipped over onto my back and people stepped on my rib cage. I freaked."
"I was down for a minute and a half. I was pulling at people trying to get up. I've never been scared like that in my life."
The month of October put an end to an amazing run of wins in the feature category by photographers from The Columbus Dispatch. In the month of July they placed first, third and took three honorable mentions. In August they swept the category including honorable mentions and repeated that performance in September. Weıll see if this is a trend that continues in the year end contest.
ONPA welcomes back a former long time member Richard Babb of Canton who had fallen through the cracks over the years. The life member also has our thanks for his financial donation to the organization. He is currently president of Ambulance Associates in Canton.
A Cleveland-based company is expected to buy Ohio Magazine. The Dispatch Printing Company, which also publishes The Columbus Dispatch, will sell the magazine to Great Lakes Publishing Company for a 25-percent stake in that firm. Ohio Magazine has a circulation of about 95-thousand readers.
Registration chairman Mark Duncan plans to have registration material mailed to members in February. Registration forms will also be available on the ONPA web site. Click on www.ohio.net/~onpa/ for PDF format forms and other convention updates.
Speakers committed to this years program include, Pulitzer Prize winner Martha Rial of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Joe Elbert, assistant managing editor of The Washington Post and Pat Davison, who is one of two current Knight Fellows in the School of Visual Communication at Ohio University. He is on leave from the staff at The Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colordao.
We are fortunate to have as our Ohio speaker this year Herrel Long of The Toledo Blade. Long was the very first ONPA Photographer of the Year back in 1964.
On the television side Brad Houston, 1998 NPPA Editor of the Year, of KUSA-TV in Denver will be joined by NPPA Region 4 POY, Steve Rhodes of WTHR-TC in Indianapolis to present this years television program. Hotel reservations need to be made by March 20 with the Cleveland Hilton South (216) 447-1300. Be sure to mention you will be attending the ONPA convention to receive the special $89 per night rate.
Registration for members: $35 before March 20, $50 after March 20; Students: $25 before March 20 and $35 after the deadline. Non-member registration is $45 before March 20 and $60 after.
Tickets for Saturday nightıs Awards Dinner are $25 per person. There will be a free lunch for all members attending the Saturday ONPA business meeting. Make plans to attend today.
I have lived my life in the 20th century, and as that century faded into memory amid the ecstatic celebrations of the new millennium, I felt strange. It seemed to me that the now bygone century , when the idea of taking the time to actually enjoy your life and the ideas, cultural references and memories in a slow, respectful pace was born, deserved more respect than it got.
Lost with our new, digital, Internet, hard-drive, html, 56K modem, bitmapped, VRAM, Pentium, dotcom, JPEG, histogram, FireWire, SCSI, e-everything dependence is the idea of doing it the good old fashioned way. And enjoying it.
The increase in the way we CAN do things is more democratic and available, but itıs less thoughtful. Surfing instantly from website to website doesnıt compare to actually going to a library and experiencing the serendipity of digging through volumes and finding the perfect book on your subject beside the one youıd thought would be perfect.
Attention spans have morphed into a half-life of about a week. A month later no one can remember what anything was all about from the week before. Technology has changed our lives and inside our lives so quickly that it has become trite, immediate, ephemeral. It doesnıt satisfy, doesnıt last, doesnıt inform.
I'm not against change. Time and tide, as they say, wait for no one and change is a good way to keep your head above the rising technological waters. Just so its a useful change.
I use a cordless phone and an answering machine. I am a home theater junkie with an expensive basement screening room that is as state-of-the art that I could afford. I have embraced the DVD format (though I still talk respectfully and lovingly of my 250 laserdiscs). And, after much soul-searching and gnashing of teeth, I recently joined the computer age with the purchase of a new, shiny, blueberry imac (complete with AOL AND email!).
So I'm not going to rail against what I think are the evils (of which there are many) of digital technology. But as photo staffs around the country hurdle head-long into the age of 0's and 1's photography, I fear the past will become more and more remote.
There will be less room for past photographic knowledge and experiences that used to be considered essential to creating a photojournalist. Photographic tradition will have little value.
I think back fondly on my first experiences looking through a beat-up old Minolta SRT101 and the simple match needle meter. The first time I walked into a darkroom, my eyes straining to adjust and when they did, feeling totally lost in the amber-colored darkness. Fumbling for paper as I struggled to make my first black and white print. Turning on the lights and and admiring the still wet picture.
Mixing chemicals and having my roommate ask me what that smell was. Wrecking half my film while learning how to roll film on those instruments of torture, Nikkor reels. Brown finger nails. How excited I was the first time I got a it right, from shooting, processing, printing and mounting.
Getting a new camera, from my Minoltas to the Nikons, F2 through the F5 and remembering how I hated the F4. Thinking about all the cool combinations of film, developers and papers and the situations they allowed me to photograph.
The joy and ease of sitting down and perusing through old negatives and reliving those moments in my photographic history. The fun of retreating to the cool darkness of the printing room during hot summer days and trying to guess who was working with me in the dark just by the sound of their voice. Chatting away the time while my film developed with other staff members, waiting for the rude, blaring interruption of the timer going off.
Speeding back from a breaking news story or late sporting event, wondering if you can meet your deadline and then doing it by making a perfect print from a roll of still dripping film on the first try.
I studied photojournalism in college but I became a photojournalist by living those same past experiences of every other graduate who stepped into the real world and put his first roll of film into a camera. That will change with the dawning of the Digital Age in photojournalism. It will continue the trend of our society whose whole legacy seems intent on rushing forward rather than looking backward. Soon we will sit in our compartment at a computer, working in Photoshop under the ever-present glow of the fluorescent lights.
Obtain our ever-increasing assignment load via cell phone or fax, ship it back by power book from our vehicles then wipe our disks clean and move on.
No discussion. No interaction.
We will also be wiping away all those wonderful, maddening, challenging and exhilarating situations that the age of film brought with it. The digital age will take those situations and force us to look at them the same way a teenager would look at the 20th century.
It's so over.
The reading of the minutes from the last meeting were dispensed with.
Barth reported that the year end balance was $2,500. Two things must be considered with that figure. The new members dues have not been deposited and we still do not have final figures from the convention last year in Dayton.
The newsletter continues to be the largest expense. The board has received many positive responses on the job that DeMay has been doing with the newsletter. Therefore we will continue to carry the added expense. The 2000 election results are in and all the present officers retained their positions. The two year term begins with their swearing in at the convention in Cleveland.
As a reminder, DeMay mentioned that board members still have to make it down to Ohio State University to check out the ONPA archives. Also we need to continue the pursuit of Life Members. Both items are in connection to the 50th anniversary of the organization next year.
In news pertaining to the changes in the Monthly Still Clip Contest, DeMay said that a postcard will be mailed out in the next couple days with the new rules for 2000.
The George Smallsreed Estate was next on the agenda. DeMay asked for board approval on hiring financial and legal advice for the estate and nonprofit status. An unanimous vote approved the hiring.
The newsletter report was next. DeMay said that he needs more cooperation with members when they move. The expense of having the newsletter returned and then sending it back out adds up. If you do move, please send Bob DeMay and/or Kimberly Barth and e-mail with the new address.
The board next discussed ways to beef up the ONPA web site. The wish is to update more often, provide more info and make it interactive. A monthly poll and a possible chat room were mentioned.
The organization is still in need of a Still Contest Chairman for the year end contest. Suba is chairing the 1999 contest coming up. A list of members will be sent to Suba and Josh White to make sure those that enter are members.
The possibility of switching to digital entries for the still contest for 2000 was discussed. Several states have now made the conversion including the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar. Pennsylvania is the latest to make the switch.
Suba, DeMay and Mike Levy of The Plain Dealer are judges for the Pennsylvania contest and will get a first hand look at the system used and will report to the membership at the 2000 convention. Some rule changes will be in store of the TV Quarterly Clip Contest. The board decided to drop the sports category due to lack of entries. An In-depth category will be added with the same rules as the annual contest. Finally the feature entry will be expanded from 3 minutes to 3 1/2. A complete copy of the rule changes will be made available to all television members.
On a related note, Shivers said that more members need to enter. Entries went down each quarter. It was announced by Shivers that Tony Giordullo will take over next year as the TV Contest Chairman. Josh White will still run this years contest from Denver, where it will be judged.
Andersen gave a progress report on the 2000 convention to be held in Cleveland on April 7-8. Four still speakers and two TV speakers have agreed to appear.
The registration fee for members will be $35 before March 20th and $50 thereafter. Students fees will be $20/$35. Non members will be $45/$60. The awards dinner, with a choice of two menu selections, will be $25. Keep an eye on the web site and e-mail for updates and reminders of the early registration deadline.
The 2001 convention will be a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the ONPA. The very first meeting was in Tuscarawas County in New Philadelphia. In an effort to return to Tuscarawas county Kim Barth has made contact with Attwood Lake Lodge and is investigating that as a site for the event.
Last on the agenda was a discussion of the Carson Award and if a worthy recipient existed. The results will be announced at the convention. Meeting adjourned.
February 14, 2000