Working in the Digital Age

    after researching how the technology of cameras evolved to how it is now, I am more appreciative of the technology I have today because some of the processes back then sound like a pain to me, for example staying still for eight minutes for a picture or even remember the chemicals for my picture to develop properly. There are many digital photographic technologies and processes for example :

• early crud digital cameras, quality less than film
• fully featured digital cameras, called DSLRS, quality rivals film 
• transmitting via cell phone and laptop
• satellite phones
• wireless transmitters
• hybrid still / video cameras DSLRs
• new digital marketplace
• wifi enabled DSLRs

    One of the processes that probably saved my college life was transmitting via cell phone and laptop. Many classes require me to take a picture or video on my phone and transfer my data to my laptop. In this class for example I need pictures that I have taken on my phone to be on my blog post or my padlett. There are many ways to transmit data from your phone to your laptop like wires, Google Drive, Bluetooth, and through an app that is created specifically to transfer data from phone to laptop. It is amazing that both of the devices can connect and transfer data so easily. Not only you can transmit data from your phone to your laptop but you can transmit things like a phone to phone, laptop to laptop, and laptop to other devices. These options are limitless and they have made everyone's life easier when you can transfer data without needing many resources this process can help photojournalists transmit their data more easily.

Photo by: Iya Forbes

Image source: here

    There are many ways that photojournalist transmit their data to the media. back in the day before technology was the way it is, photojournalist used to be a person's specific hobby or career because of their limited technology and how expensive the material is for a photojournalist, with the best technology for photojournalism it still has hideous steps for long exposure time. back in the 1970s, a photo transmitter was used to send pictures from the photojournalist to the media. United Press Internationally UPI model 16-s will scan photos and then transmit them using a telephone line. the process of the photo transmitter usually goes "You place a print on the drum and start the transmitter. The drum then rotates at a consistent speed while a scanning beam would move slowly across the photo, scanning one line at a time. Transmitting the analog signal required a connection to a phone line"  Using this type of transmitter was painfully slow and one black and white photo can take up from 8 to 9 minutes to send “If you were lucky enough to get a perfect telephone line for sending the picture, one color photo took a minimum of 26 minutes to transmit ” and sending internationally can take twice and long sometimes up to an hour per photo.

   Before the technology, we had photographers who took pictures and then developed them, some of the cameras can have long exposure time. Roger Fenton an Englishman who covered the Crimean War in 1855 said that you need a lot of gear and he can only take pictures of subjects that did not move stated by Professor Nordell. This article called " The Civil War: The Birth of Photojournalism" stated that "Fenton's pictures were an early attempt to document war with a camera, but his images were mostly of the landscapes and participants of the conflict" which gives evidence to professor nordell statement where Roger Fenton has mostly taken picture of a subject that doesn't move. Roger Fenton used the process called wet plate collodion, and from this video, the time for the picture to fully be exposed can take up to eight minutes which explain why most of the pictures that were taken by Fenton is usually taken an image of things that doesn't move like landscape or of a nonmoving subject to prevent the pictures being blurry. 

Photo by: Matt Cardy

Image source: here

    Nowadays days we have a lot of social media platforms from which we can share our images like Instagram, facebook, TikTok, twitter, and Snapchat. photojournalist took these social media platforms to show their work and write stories about the picture. even if they want to be featured on popular news media you can just reach out to them via email. everything is so much easier than it was back then with the technology we have. Even taking a picture on your phone can produce a good-quality image and it also easy to post

    Some of the sites that can help Demotix which is revolutionizing the news media and photojournalism in particular. Demotix is a place where anybody from anywhere can share their stories with people throughout the world with the global mainstream media. which helps photojournalism because street photojournalists have a chance for their work to be shown on big media sight like the New York Times. Demotix will send out emails about their photographers via e-mail to more than 200 news outlets around the world.