The summer of 2026 has been an interesting time for my small newspaper. We are in the process of moving our operation from East Main Street to the Mini Mall. Since our new home will have so much less floor space, the word went out that we could either use it or lose it, meaning…
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I know I probably talk too much about getting and staying organized, both in your photography and in your life in general. And it’s easy to say you should keep the good stuff and throw away the junk, but it is much more difficult to decide what really is useful and valuable, and what really…
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My readers know well that I love old cameras, both digital and film. I make solid, sometimes award-winning images with cameras that some professional might shun, cameras they consider obsolete. Last week I was handed another tote full of old cameras, all of which had been used up and quit working. One of these cameras…
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I had another great night at the Oklahoma Press Association’s annual convention June 6. I received first and second place for education story, first second and third place for feature photograph, first and third place for news photograph, first second and third place for photo essay, and first place for sports photograph. ______________________________ Props to…
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I’ve never been shy about suggesting to my readers that the act of updating, migrating, and curating old photographic content is important. A phrase popped into my head the other day that went something like, “No one has ever taped a Facebook post into a scrapbook.” It is a sobering, even depressing, truth that social…
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Something calls to us when we see or hear something that feels or looks innocent. It’s true when we are falling in love, listening to beautiful music, or, in today’s topic, interacting with and photographing babies and animals. My next door neighbor Mike Nipps loves keeping chickens, ducks, guinea fowl, dogs, and one grumpy goat….
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It has been a raining off and on this week. Instead of last year’s endless parade of severe thunderstorms, this week has mostly featured quiet, steady, intermittent showers. I have already made three walks in the rain, one with our summer intern Sara Mearns to get to a house fire, and two with my Chihuahua….
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Are you a photographer, or a shopper? Are you an artist, or a dilettante? Do you really want to make pictures, or are you following the crowd? Are you into photography for the right reasons? I’m going to go down a rabbit hole here – or possibly open a can of worms – whichever analogy…
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Spring is about to spring forth, and with it, color. Photographers across the northern hemisphere will pull their cameras out, charge their batteries, format their storage media, and generally “suit up” for the coming weeks. It’s a time of brown grass turning green, flowers and trees blooming, outdoor gatherings that include Easter and Ada’s excellent…
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I think cameras are better that smartphone cameras. I know, I know. Smartphone cameras are great, and I admit I use my smartphone for work almost every day. But here’s why I think cameras are better than smartphone: the experience. I’ve been using a smartphone for my news and sports work for as long as…
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Photographers can be a little obsessive. They worry and fret about lighting, content, image quality, location, time of day, access, lenses, cameras, and much more. It is hard for us to switch off the inner photographer and just relax and enjoy the moment. Even when we are not the photographer, like when a close friend…
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In the span of my career, a lot has changed. On the day I started work here at your Ada News, then known as The Ada Evening News, I owned three 35mm SLR cameras, the Nikon FM, the Nikon FM2, and the Nikon FE2. I bought them in college, one at a time, along with…
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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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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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