Super Bowl Media Day 2007

Indianapolis Colts players mingle with reporters during Media Day for Super Bowl XLI at Dolphin Stadium in Miami, Tuesday, Jan. 30.

Super Bowl Media Day is like looking for the needle in the proverbial haystack: thousands of journalists from around the world asking the same questions to the same players but hoping for that nugget or tip that would help separate them from the pack. And what usually sets apart the good from the mediocre? Hard work, a unique perspective and a little luck. These traits are hard to find in an environment that encourages pack mentality, and restricts access.

For today's favorite link, check out the All-Time Stupid Media Day questions, as presented at CNNSI.com.

And my winner is (drumroll, please) ...

 

To Rams QB Kurt Warner:

 

"Do you believe in voodoo, and can I have a lock of your hair?"

 

And today's favorite photo? Hey, you've got to enjoy yourself when you can. Tomorrow it's back to practice.

 

 

Chicago Bears tackle Mark LeVoir plays a game during media day for the NFL's Super Bowl XLI football game in Miami, Jan. 30.

See you back here on Super Bowl night.

- Steve

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Did You See That?

Tennessee men's head basketball coach Bruce Pearl, front left, cheers along with some orange-painted students as the Tennessee women's team plays Duke in a college basketball game in Knoxville, Tenn., Jan. 22. The second-year Tennessee coach keeps putting on a show to bring more attention to the Volunteers and their rising program. 

Coaches are emotional, demonstrative people, but they usually don't stand in the student section with a painted chest cheering on their off days. Somehow Bruce reminds me of something ... wait, I remember now:

See the rest of the fun at: AOL Sports: Did You See That?

 

- Mike Heffner

 

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Pictures of the Week: Jan. 20-26

A Frill shark?

 

I've never heard of it before, but it is amazingly scary looking. The fact that this species is so rarely seen certainly insures it's inclusion into this week's Pictures of the Week. There are other amazing and rarely seen images in this week's gallery, such as a cedar waxwing tossing up a piece of fruit, which the photographer was able to catch mid-air. And of course, there's the history-making appearance of the first female Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, who presided over the State of the Union address, which President Bush gave Jan. 23. Take a look and cast your vote for your favorite photo.

 

- Lee

 

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2007 Oscar Nominees

And the winner is??? 

 

Picking the nominees is not easy -- especially when it comes to a live gallery of the 2007 Academy Award Nominees - AOL Pictures. It took several weeks of upfront legwork to secure images of the most likely nominees for the gallery on AOL Visions, including much guesswork and my secret handicapping web site: The Oscar Guy (OG X). (He was 98% correct on who the "Oscar®" nominees were likely to be -- he's very good if you want to place a wager in Las Vegas.) Right after the 8:30 AM announcement by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, we made a couple of changes in the photos. And Voila!  The gallery was live on AOL for you to view unique and engaging images of this year's class of top nominees.

 

 

Tell us what you think. And vote for your category favorites using the link at the end of each caption.  

 

One last thing -- be sure to read all the latest Oscar news at Oscars and Academy Awards Movie Buzz: 2007 - Moviefone.

 

- Alan

 

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Holiday in Ireland

I wanted to share a few photographs from my trip to Ireland, as it is one of those places that inspires me to pick up my camera. I seek inspiration all around me when I'm at home, and inevitably my lens turns towards my daughter. I don't find it easy to shoot in my own backyard unless she is somewhere in the frame, but the minute I set foot in the old country everything changes.

I am sure that it has something to do with simply having the time to go out and shoot freely while on vacation in a world other than my own. I always enjoy taking photographs of my daughter and in-laws, but the vibrant colors and magical scenery in Ireland jump out at me and beg to be photographed!

I always return home and feel a sense of renewed enthusiasm to take pictures of almost anything I see, and then I suddenly see Sadie’s face in the frame once again and know that I am home.

 

The first image that you see is of my daughter’s legs as my husband holds her while standing on rocks looking out at the Irish Sea. Here, I have strayed from an expected angle and chose to focus on her legs dangling down toward the sea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feel free to submit photos of your own that have been inspired either in your own backyard or elsewhere! Please post a link in the comments section below to share your images.

 

- Jolie

 

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Elsa Kawai: My Abstract World

Mundane objects around us are full of potential abstract beauty -- it is just a matter of noticing it.

In the tutorial below, I would like to share with you how I look at everyday objects and turn them into abstract photographs:

 

1. Pick a subject: There is no criteria for this other than pick something that draws your attention.  

 

2. Step Close: Go closer to the subject and look at it again. Pay attention to the details: lines, colors, textures etc.

3. Discover all angles: Be patient and look at it from different angles - up close and from a distance; move around it -- look at it from a low angle, from the top, tilt your camera, and snap a few photos.

4: Establish the mood: Once you discover the angle and idea behind the subject, think about the mood. Would it work best in color or black and white? 

 

When I looked up at the building (see photo below), I was struck by the sense of infinity -- the building merging into the infinite sky. So I chose to photograph this in black and white, which created an impression of the building blending into the sky. Notice the steps I took to create this photograph:

 

 

 

I would like to stress: do not stick to a regular point of view. You will be surprised by what you can discover each time you look at something from a fresh angle -- so seek to look down, look up, twist your body, tilt your head -- be careful and have fun discovering the wonderful world of abstract photography.

 

Here are a few more of my discoveries:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some thumbnails -- makes a pretty abstract composite! You can see these larger on my website: Elsa Kawai.

 

 

Enjoy!  And don't forget to share some of your abstract photos in the comments section below.

 

- Elsa

 

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Did You See That?

I'm not a big mountain person - not by choice, really, but I've lived near the ocean or some great body of water almost all my life, so the whole concept of snow-capped mountain peaks is beyond me.

 

I just think it's fascinating to be at an elevation where it's possible to stand ABOVE the clouds - even if it's just a fog bank - and not have to be on top of Everest or something insane like that, but just at a normal elevation for a skiing competition.

 

I also prefer the cold winter to the hot summer, but that's a topic for another time.

 

Check out Did You See That? and our NFL Week in Photos for more visual fun...

- Mike Heffner

Pictures of the Week: Jan. 13-19

This week's photograph of the officers from Greece's presidential guard performing their step routine in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Athens is an interesting image. At first, it almost appears to be an optical illusion -- you're not quite sure what you're looking at. It contains elements of humor and geometry.What do you think? Do you enjoy this captured, light moment, or do you prefer more serious photojournalism of the week's event's?

Check out all of this week's pictures, and cast your vote for the top photo: Pictures of the Week.

 

- Lee

COLORS Magazine

If one of your New Year's resolutions consisted of expanding your horizons in the photo publications realm, you could turn to the canons for a jump start. National Geographic, Time, Vogue, Vanity Fair, and a variety of daily periodicals consistently provide a reliable mélange of top quality images. Yet, within the market today, a wide range of smaller publications showcasing novel and brilliant camera work deserve attention as well.

COLORS magazine, a venture initiated in 1991 by Luciano Benetton and Oliviero Toscani of the Benetton Group, is nicknamed “a magazine about the rest of the world.” Following this motto, COLORS publishes in 40 countries, in four languages, and in three editions. Its goal is to connect ideas globally through poignant images and words. Tibor Kalman, the designer who broke ground with his New York agency, M&Co., served as the original creative editor of COLORS. His design sensibility molded the bold and minimalist format of the magazine, using striking but unassuming images and short reportage to accentuate universal ideas. In more recent times the "idea firm" of FABRICA has migrated the magazine to the Web, transforming the COLORS Web site into a globally accessible piece of art.

The first four issues released in the early 1990s concentrate on birth, immigration, evolution and race — vast topics, but universally experienced and regionally defined. Issue #47, one of the most exceptional issues in the archives, is titled, "MADNESS." Stark portraits of individuals who found love in a Cuban mental hospital serve as an entry point. Eerie pictures of disturbed faces and desolate backdrops play into the magazine’s theme, yet cleverly break the stereotype of insanity by portraying happy lovers. The magazine continues on to Belgium, South Africa, the Los Angeles County Jail, as well as into the innards of medication; juxtaposing laconic one-line interviews with haunting and diverse images of madness.

The topic is almost always vague, but the stories and images are so personalized and so creatively portrayed, you will never think the same about themes such as frontiers, food, lust, slavery, status and monoculture ever again. The most recent issue is titled, “Back To Earth.” While most newsstand magazines feature airbrushed celebrities on their covers, Issue #69 chose Erwan Fichou’s portrait of a peasant sitting atop a donkey to grace its cover. A magazine combining this much unassuming creative power with such social awareness deserves to be your new years resolution.

 

Here is a peek at some of COLORS magazine's front and back covers:

 

 

 

 

Enjoy !

 

- Rachel

Did You See That?

Head Coach Mike Dunleavy of the Los Angeles Clippers holds up LeBron James #23 of the Cleveland Cavaliers as he balances on the scorers table on January 13, 2007 at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.

Ever hold something worth eight figures in your hand? Mike Dunleavy has... :-)

 

Usually we see photos of athletes leaving the field of play, diving out of bounds, falling into stands or dugouts... but we rarely see them on the precipice, balancing and being held up.

 

We try to make the Did You See That? gallery about the unusual, the rarely seen angle or event, every week. Hopefully we did just fine this week.....

AOL Sports: Did You See That?  

AOL Sports: NFL - Week In Photos  

 

- Mike Heffner

Pictures of the Week: Jan. 6-12

Two images from this week's Pictures of the Week gallery make perfect companion pieces not only because of the subject matter, but also because of the shared visual element of the American flag. In one photograph, where flags serve as a backdrop, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ponders a question about the details of President Bush's Iraq strategy during a news conference following the president's speech announcing a surge of troop commitment. In the second photograph, the flag is used as a symbol of honor as an Army honor guard carries the casket of Sgt. John T. Bubeck, of Collegeville, Pa., during funeral services at Arlington National Cemetery.

 

 

 

Regardless of your opinion of the policy in Iraq, the flag is the symbol that ties us together, just as it does in the photos above -- we are all united as Americans.

 

Check out all of this week's pictures, and cast your vote for the best photo: Pictures of the Week.

 

- Lee

Fotofestivus III

We said our blog would be about chronicling what we do here as photo editors at AOL -- highlighting and discussing great images, bringing you useful information, and having some fun, too. And here's the fun part: Fotofestivus.

 

It's an idea we came up with as a staff a while ago. It's pretty simple: each month, we identify a theme and shoot a photo for it. Some themes will be straightforward, some wacky. We'd like to invite you to join in, too. Our theme this time around: holiday. Surely, you have a few photos you've shot just recently that might work into for this theme. You don't even have to go out and shoot this time. Just in case -- a few photos by some of the AOL photo editors for a little inspiration:

 

 

 

 

Now here's your mission: Send us links to the images you photographed around the holiday theme. The photo can be new, it can be old, just send us an image that strikes you for whatever reason.

 

Have fun and think creatively! We look forward to seeing how this month's theme inspired you. For more inspiration, take a look at some of our other Fotofestivus entries:

Fotofestivus II

Fotofestivus

 

- Gary

White House denies access to photographers

At the 4 p.m. AOL News meeting, we discussed coverage of President Bush's televised White House address to the American people.

 

Our news blog, The Daily Pulse feature was already built out earlier.  Having done this so many times before, the plan went like this:

 

My co-worker Nikki Wagner was working the frame-grabbing machine, tuned to CNN television. Two minutes into the speech she grabbed video stills from the broadcast.  I treated the image and had the captions ready to publish it on the AOL News main page.

 

This was done during the first 10 minutes of the speech.

 

Next, I waited for the first real photo to be transmitted on the wire news agencies: Associated Press, Reuters, Getty News.  Photographers are usually not allowed into the room during the live televised portion of the President's speech.  Immediately following the conclusion of the televised speech, the President then sits at the desk for a photo session  This has been the protocol for many years.

 

However yesterday, by 9:40 PM, 20 minutes after the speech ended, we still saw no actual photographic images of the speech on any of the wire services.

 

I placed a call to the AP National Photo Supervisor in New York, asking when we would see the actual photos.   The supervisor told me, "There will not be any."  The President had denied the White House still photographers POOL access, before during or after the speech.  White House handout photos by Presidential photographer Eric Draper would be made available to the press.

 

AP, Getty, and Reuters jointly agree to boycott this.  I find this rather interesting and I believe it may be unprecedented.

 

Below are examples of how coverage was handled by various news agencies:

 

AOL used this video frame grab from a CNN broadcast:

 

 

President Bush speaks from the White House in Washington said Wednesday he will send 21,500 additional U.S. troops to Iraq.

 

Both AP and Reuters ran similar quality video-frame images on their services.  Getty did not run the speech at all.
 

Here are AP and Reuters Advisory:

 

AP PHOTO ADVISORY

EDITORS AND PHOTO EDITORS: Still photographers were not permitted access before, during or after President Bush's televised address from the White House library, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2007. AP Photos NY201-205 are frame grabs from Associated Press Television and have been transmitted to all points. (AP Photos)

 

Reuters News Pictures. Advisory - COVERAGE

Reuters News Pictures regrets that due to restrictions imposed by the White House Reuters will not be able to provide still photographs from President Bush's White House address on Iraq. News photographers were not allowed to photograph the President before, during or after his address. Television frame grabs from the pool video of the speech have been transmitted.

 

Getty had this: 

 

 

WASHINGTON - JANUARY 10:  Evening settles over the White House January 10, 2007 in Washington, DC. U.S. President George W. Bush will address the nation this evening on his latest strategy in Iraq.  (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

 

What do you think of the White House's restrictions on photographers?

 

- Guy

 

 

 

Ami Vitale: Photographs

Where does one look for inspiration?  What is your muse?   I read a recent article in Edit, a new magazine published by Getty Images targeted at picture professionals, which surveyed people about what sparked their creativity. 

It got me thinking about the times when I felt completely uninspired before a photo shoot, or sometimes now when I hit a slump working as a photo editor.  I realized that what inspires me the most is looking at the work of other photographers: it makes my heart race, it makes me want to pick up my camera and shoot and it gives me a fresh perspective on photo editing. 

 

One photographer who never fails to inspire me, and whose work I can look at repeatedly and never get enough of is Ami Vitale.   Her photographs seem to live and breathe, she brings us realities from thousands of miles away - up close with an intensity that can make one shudder.  Her awareness of light, which makes many of her photographs look like Rembrandt's paintings, her sensitivity to the emotions around her, and her ability to put these elements together in a perfect graphic balance reflect her unadulterated passion for her subjects and for photography.

 

I could write pages about her photographs but I want you to experience these on your own terms.  So here is a sampling of her work from recent years: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don't forget to check out her web site, Ami Vitale-- not only are the images here mesmerizing, it is one of the better designed sites on the web. 

 

And this site features some audio interviews with Ami: Digital Journalist.

 

Tell us what you think of Ami's work and what inspires you.

 

- Monika

Elsa Kawai: Portfolio - Macro Photography

Take a look below at my new collection of Macro photography. This was my first test with the new macro lens I got this Christmas -- the Nikon 105 mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Micro Nikkor Lens.

This is a wonderful lens to start off my 2007 photo series. The macro lens forces me to experience wonderful, minuscule details that I would otherwise overlook. In a way it forces me to look deeper into my life and my surroundings.

 

How to make tiny, wintry details look sexy on macro?

Well, most of the shoot below was on a gloomy cloudy day. The trick here is that when you find something you want to photograph, make sure that the foreground is bright. For example, the image directly below of the dandelion seed head was taken in the woods; I took it with me as I walked. I was searching for just the right background to shoot it against. As I walked, I noticed that the trees were color coded and had differing patches of color on their trunks.  When I saw the bright orange, I was drawn to its richness and vividness, and a certain eastern feel of the color. I decided to use this tiny patch of orange as a background for my equally small dandelion.

 

 

The macro lens can really transform how we see things around us.  Here are some more images, exclusively on this blog, that I took with my new macro lens:

 

 

 

 

 

And here are some others that can be found on my web site as well:

 

 

 

 

Do you have a macro lens?  We would love to see some images you took -- please share these with links in the comment section below.

 

Stay tuned for more images next week.

 

-  Elsa