Flathead Valley Looking Glass: Kalispell, Montana News

Half of the Nobel Prize, announced Tuesday morning, October 7, was awarded to Charles K. Kao for his discoveries in how light travels through glass strands, leading to revolutions in fiber optic cable. The other half went to Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith for the invention of semiconductor sensors which are in digital cameras.

The mastery of light through technology was the theme of this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics as the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences honored breakthroughs in fiber optics and digital photography. - Kenneth Chang/New York Times

Read the full New York Times article, Nobel Awarded for harnessing Light, here.

First, this is very cool. Second, keeping up with world class athletes is exactly why photogs need to stay in shape. Photographer Alexx Henry's most recent blog post is this short video on shooting triathlete Chris Lieto for the "Living" magazine cover and spread released with the October issue of Outside Magazine.

"Photographed with the Red One camera, we created our vision of how a motion-magazine of the not-too-distant future would look based on emerging technologies like flexible OLED and E Ink." - Alexx Henry.

The lighting is amazing, the images stunning, the idea brilliant and the flexible video screens mind blowing. Thanks Alexx for posting this blog. For more, check out his blog here, and check out his Web site here.

National Press Photographers Association recently announced the launching of its new blog, The Visual Student. Geared toward students studying visual journalism, the blog provides a space where students can hear from photo directors, professional photographers and fellow students firsthand.

The blog has started strong with Internship Q&As with The Oregonian, The Dallas Morning News and the St. Petersburg Times, among others. 2008 College Photographer of the Year Tim Hussin writes about editing portfolios for the CPOY contest and Angela Shoemaker discusses applying for a Fulbright grant. The site also contains links to grants and scholarships as well as competitions and other Web sites of interest.

This has the makings of a great resource for students and professionals alike.

Pulitzer Prize winning photographer David Leeson is speaking tonight, Sept. 21, at the University of Montana. Unfortunately, I am unable to go. For those of you who are not familiar with Leeson's work, he was a staffer at the Dallas Morning News where he won the Pulitzer for his coverage of Iraq. He is a great video journalist as well as still photographer. He works in fine art photography as well as photojournalism. He is incredibly smart. His lecture is at the University Center Theater at 7 p.m. If, like me, you are unable to attend, check out this short video I am borrowing from his Web site. It is the last speech he made as a Morning News photographer during a presentation for the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers' Association. It is truly inspirational.



Check out his Web site, his images and his vision.

Photographer Craig F. Walker, with a team of editing and production support, has an incredible piece on The Denver Post Web site. For 27 months, the photographer and reporters followed Ian Fisher through recruitment, basic training, deployment to Iraq and eventually his return home from combat. (See the project here.)

I went to the New York Times Web site this morning and was surprised to find a familiar face on the front page. It was Scott Johnston, owner of the Montana Radio Café in Creston. I’ve met Johnston numerous times and written a story about him, as well as a blog. And Lido has an excellent slide show of photos taken when we hung out with Johnston for a morning to do an interview.

Click here for Lido's slide show and click "read more" for more information on Johnston.

Kenneth Jarecke wrote a great essay for the New York Times Lens blog last week, Aug. 25, paralleling photojournalists with cowboys. (Read it here.)

Jarecke is currently based out of Billings, and has an impressive resume of clients. Photographing the Montana Fair sparks his thoughts on the similarities between the photojournalist and the cowboy. Not images of the lone gunman, but the idea that neither is supposed to exist.

Recently, the National Press Photographers Association objected to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's remarks during a television interview on Fox News. In a nutshell, Napolitano said that the public should be suspicious of photographers and asked citizens to report, "when they see something unusual, if they see, for example, somebody continually taking photographs of a piece of critical infrastructure that doesn't seem to make any sense." Read the news story on NPPA.org here.

That's why I'm going to start wearing these nifty stickers, pens and T-Shirts that will convey to everyone, "I'm a Photographer, Not a Terrorist."