“Framework” by Los Angeles Times — Capturing the World Through Photography

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This is in addition to our recent post The Big Picture: Daily Photography at Its Best. The Los Angeles Times’ dedicated photography webpage Framework is another great site offering the nuts and bolts of news photography. The content in a nutshell:

Framework, the photography and video blog of the Los Angeles Times, celebrates the power and explores the craft of visual storytelling. The blog highlights the work of Times photojournalists who frame by frame document the drama, the emotion and sometimes the humor of life. Framework also aims to serve as a resource hub for photography, multimedia and video enthusiasts who share our passion. We will trade insights and discuss the tools and techniques of telling stories through images.

Offering the sections Our Work, Learn & Discover, Save the Date, From the Archive and Must See, not only the enthusiast photographer is offered insights. Take the LAT photographer Robert Gauthier’s recent story on the most basic of photographic challenges: A Lens on the Olympics: First, Find a Good Spot.

Besides excellent news features and visual storytelling Framework offers refreshing, insightful views and takes of working photographers. So shooting at the Olympics, sounds like a dream job?

Dream job, working as a photographer at the Olympic games? Ask the Los Angeles Times’ Paul Gauthier…

“Event journalism,” for the photographer, is 90 percent production, 10 percent photography. Despite our desire to find that perfect angle or shooting position, we are often at the mercy of organizers and PR firms seem to consider us less than human. It’s become a made for television world, and we’re just peeking around the corner to give our readers a look. At least it feels that way when I’m shooting from one of the more “desired” positions and I can’t even see Paul Mcartney sing “Hey Jude.”

Enough complaining.

This is my fourth Olympic games. Photographers, myself included, like to think we’re similar to the athletes. Not athletic in the classic way. Yes, we need strength to carry up to 40 lbs. of equipment, and the stamina to handle it for hours on end. Our real test comes when we must win the battle of position. Dozens to hundreds of colleagues from around the world are looking for the perfect angle on the action. In this case, it’s usually “the early bird gets the prime spot.” Once I’m set — I sit. Shoulder to shoulder with a bunch of other guys. On a hot day (this is the Summer Olympics), the smell can be described as “exotic,” at best. As the action heats up, we are all lost in the moment. Focused on elite athletes in search of glory. The soreness in my shoulders and butt melts away, as does the smell. I’m oblivious to the shutters pounding thousands of frames and the surging cheers of an excited crowd. In a matter of seconds, hours of work is rewarded and it’s time to prepare for the next battle.

Or take this excellent multimedia video feature, Living Off the Grid in Slab City. Distressing and inspiring at the same time, to say the least:

Living off the grid in Slab City — With the nation mired in high unemployment, a desert squatters’ camp in the Imperial Valley appears to be growing — and it’s turning into a community. The Luciano family, nine members in all, have taken up temporary residence at this former Marine base near the Salton Sea. Several hundred people — ranging from the free-spirited young, retired “snowbirds” from colder climes and the tight-money crowd of all ages — live in a ramshackle collection of tents, trailers, aging mobile homes and other ad-hoc dwellings. There are no municipal services, no streetlights and no water or sewage services. But nobody charges rent or collects fees or tries to impose homeowner covenants. Slab City is out of sight and out of mind, just the way its residents like it. | Los Angeles Times

You find great photography, video and multimedia content on Framework — that’s certainly worth a daily visit.