For most of the history of photojournalism, photographers and their editors have used slang, jargon that doesn’t mean much or sounds made-up to outsiders. We use words like dummy, presser, scoop, wire, embargo, cuts, nutgraf, advertorial, tab, -30-, breakout, stringer, and a couple of favorites at my newspaper for a long time, “three-murder Saturday,” and…
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Updated, September 2025 Life is full of foolish myths, ideas that get planted into our brains by rumor or gossip or misperception, and seem to endure. One of those myths in photography is that sensor size affects depth of field. I hear it all the time in class, in the field, and, of course, on…
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Today’s featured camera is one that I had never seen in the field until someone actually gave me this one earlier this summer. Nikon’s Nikonos series of underwater cameras are marvels of over-engineering. It is heavy. The knobs, switches and doors are all built like bank vaults. The viewfinder is huge enough that you can…
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Another film camera that came across my desk recently is the Olympus OM-4 T. This camera came along at the peak of film photography, first being sold in 1983. I’ve always like the style of Olympus cameras, and their lineup of Zuiko lenses was pretty impressive in that period. Of course, camera makers’ lenses were…
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When I was a young teenager, I was influenced by a lot of magazines. I bought and eventually subscribed to Flying, Stereo Review, Popular Photography, Modern Photography, and Omni, and often picked up Scientific American and National Geographic from news stands. My parents knew that subscriptions to these magazines would make great birthday and Christmas gifts…
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Reading through the photography news of the month, I came across several reviews and recommendations for a new camera, the Sony RX1R III. As my readers know, I am all about cameras and lenses, so sure, I thought, I’d love to learn about this new Sony. The RX1 III is a fixed-lens, 60 megapixel, 36x24mm-sized…
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If you have been reading my pieces about photography and journalism for any amount of time, you know that I write a lot about how technology flourishes, then flounders, then, sometimes, disappears. It’s interesting to observe the organic, often non-linear, way technologies can evolve. A couple of examples of this are film photography, which looked…
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The Most Interesting Accessory You Will Never Use I recently had lunch with a fellow photographer, someone I have known since 1985. We talked about everything, but, as is true about most photographers, we mostly talked about photography. At the end of lunch, he handed me a box that look like it had just appeared…
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Spring and summer are green and colorful in southeastern Oklahoma where I live. You can frequently find me walking my dogs or cutting the grass, and many evenings in the middle of that, I will see things I want to photograph in the golden evening light. I keep cameras just inside, for just this reason….
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This Saturday at the Oklahoma Press Association’s annual convention, I was honored and kind of surprised to find that I swept – got first, second, and third place – four photography categories. My newspaper also got first place in photography, which is all me. Here are the images. News Photograph Sports Photograph Feature Photograph Photo…
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Summer is travel time. There are several important reasons for this, but at the top of the list are the warm weather, and the fact that kids are out of school. My sister and her husband are taking a long, and long-awaited, tour across the American west. They seem to be having an amazing time…
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Most photographers would agree: a 50mm lens is a great addition to your lens collection. The 50mm focal length has always been popular, and 50mm lenses tend to be cheap, lightweight and small. There are a couple of odd exceptions. Many lens makers use this focal length to create what are called “halo” products: large,…
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My readers know that I love a good used digital camera. Why? I love the idea of taking something that was once valuable, then discarded, and giving it new life. I love the idea of recycling. I also love the idea that I make better pictures (hopefully pictures that my readers enjoy) not because I…
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As spring approaches, and with the arrival of Daylight Saving Time, I am outdoors more, both as a journalist and as a homeowner. Since I am a photographer both as a profession and for a hobby, I am always taking pictures. Some of these pictures are very straightforward, like tornado damage, flowers blooming, or kids…
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I recently spoke to the Byng School student body as part of Journey of Hope, a program from the Oklahoma City National Memorial, about my experience as a journalist covering the terrorist bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. At the end of the session, organizers opened…
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